The Meerkat Wars

I love a good animal fantasy adventure story, so I was excited to get this one from the early reviewers program. The main character, a cat named Sheena, is a loveable little creature that seems to have a knack for getting involved. I loved that the adventure just seemed to roll out before her, and she wasn't nosing her way into things, or trying hard to be involved. The conflicts that arose were all perfectly natural and gave the plot flow and excitement in an extremely believable way. I loved the ambiguous nature of all the animals, no flat characters, or black and white, right and wrong here. There were motives and real life influences in everything that happened. The dialogue was entertaining, if somewhat full of puns at times, but show more still seemed natural and interesting. This author really loved playing with words, and I think it helped that the made up or mashed together words were italicized as it helped alleviate confusion and emphasized they weren't real words, especially as there are lots of foreign words (names really) used. On the other hand there are plenty of real words used that have double meaning, such as the main characters name. I was surprised to find that this is actually the third book of Sheena's adventures in Africa, and I will be looking for the first two to read as well. There were references to the previous tales, and even some recurring characters, but nothing so critical that I felt lost. The events were recapped succinctly and efficiently and the events moved on nicely.
I think the book can be enjoyed on many levels, and one could have some good discussion arise out of the main plot of the book, where the cat (an outsider) is trying to change deep held faith based beliefs of the indigenous people. In this particular case, the meerkat tribes each believe that they have the one true sun and that the other sun of the other tribe is false (giving the premise that there had to be two suns at least) and thus their differences are so great that small conflicts lead to the conclusion that war is needed. In the end, by proving there is only one sun, Sheena is able to make the meerkat see that their differences are not really differences at all, and they really have more in common than not. We have to assume the happily ever after for them as the tale ends with them having a chance to resolve everything, and seeming to, but the main character leaves them before the actual compromises have been made. It is sort of trite to be able to resolve everything like this and really quite condescending to wash out all the faith of two separate belief systems, but that would be a good point to stop and make parallels to the real world and it's problems.
The story is accompanied by lovely realistic drawings of the animals and the action. I was always intrigued to see the illustrations and looked forward to each new one. Overall this was a great read and I'm so happy to have been introduced to the Paka Mdogo series! show less

I've always had a soft spot for books that involved groups of animals undertaking some adventure, or caught up in some conflict: Watership Down, Charlotte's Web, Tailchaser's Song, The Incredible Journey, the Redwall series...so I was very excited to read H.S. Toshack's The Meerkat Wars, a story of two tribes of meerkats and a very clever, very thoughtful little house cat.

Sheena is the small black and white pet cat of the Allen family, who live in Africa. She creeps into the back of the Allen's Land Rover as they embark on a camping trip to Baragandiri National Park, and she is inadvertently left behind in the hot desert sand after a pit stop. An encounter with a nasty scorpion leads Sheena to her first meeting with the Duwara tribe of show more meerkats, and as she spends more time with her new companions, Sheena becomes deeply involved in their struggle with a neighbouring tribe, the Utongo. It seems the two tribes, which live on either side of a deep, dark gorge, have long been at odds over the idea that each tribe has their own sun. As the sun is a renewing, life-giving force central to their lives (almost a deity, although this is never stated), this two-sun idea is worth so much to the Utongo and the Duwara that tribe members risk - and sacrifice - their lives to uphold their beliefs.

Sheena, a smart, creative, and empathetic cat, is determined to use all of the resources available to her to stop the meerkats from destroying each other. As she sets her plans in motion, she encounters much adversity, including acid-spewing ants, a hungry monitor lizard, a family of prickly porcupines, and a herd of den-destroying buffalo. The hardest part of all, though, is convincing the meerkats to co-operate and save themselves.

Undoubtedly, part of the charm of this book is the way Sheena's character is drawn - you can't help but admire her tenacity and resourcefulness, the way she thinks on her feet, and her countless selfless and kind deeds. And, as Sheena learns about her new meerkat friends, the reader learns about them as well - how they sleep, how they raise their young, how they eat, how they survive in the stifling African heat. (I certainly know more about meerkats now than I ever did before!).

Above all, I loved Toshack's writing style - there are a ton of word-plays going on in this book, really fun stuff that would appeal to both children and adults. Humour, combined with a massive attention to detail, make this book an absolute delight to read. I think it would be a perfect selection to read aloud.

Now, I simply MUST go back and read the first two books in the series! show less

If you are the kind of animal lover that revels in the antics of the smaller creatures on our planet and that chooses to look beyond the attention-grabbing Big Five of the African continent, then you just might be the ideal audience for The Meerkat Wars by H.S. Toshack (PakaMdogo Press, 2012; ISBN: 978-0-9563236-2-0). This inspiring tale of how a cat helps a clan of meerkats to fend off an invading clan that wishes to take over its territory makes for a heart-pounding and insightful read, not only teaching youngsters (and those of an older generation who still are blessed with the ability to savor such writing) of the habits of these relatively small inhabitants of the African plains, but also encouraging them to empathize with others show more who may, in appearance at least, seem to be significantly different to themselves, especially at first sight.

The characters that comprise the cast of this tale all come to life under Toshack’s thoughtful and perceptive penmanship. Even if a child has never before heard of the strange breed of mongoose that also bears the name ‘suricate’, they are bound to warm to the author’s lively descriptions of this apparently sun-worshipping breed of small mammal that spends so much of its life underground. By starting from familiar territory, with a cat that, unbeknownst to its owners, stows away on board their Land Rover when they go on safari in the Baragandiri National Park, and who gets lost almost as soon as she arrives in the Park, Toshack cleverly elicits the sympathy of his audience, many of whom most probably have cats as pets, or who have relatives or friends who do. Sheena, despite being the pivotal figure in the story, in her position as a link between the two warring clans, provides an understandable and empathetic connection between the familiar and the unknown on more than one level. Meerkats, on her first encountering them, are as strange to her as they are likely to be for any human who has not yet been exposed to the wonderful range of creatures that there are to encounter in the African bush.

Although Toshack is, at times, inclined to indulge in a fair measure of anthropomorphism, he conveys with ease insights into not only the way of life of meerkats, but also into that of other animals that Sheena encounters in her adventures, such as porcupines and honey badgers. It comes as no surprise, then, to find that Toshack has both lived and worked in Africa, nor that he is a retired English teacher and educational consultant. Indeed, he takes great enjoyment in playing around with the English language, such as when Sheena first thinks porcupines are called ‘porcuspines’ and has to be corrected in her language usage. Toshack’s great sense of humor adds an extra bite to the ease and flow of his writing, which is complemented by numerous fine drawings by Nelson McAlister.

If you and your children become as enamored with Toshack’s and Sheena’s (she is accredited with coauthor status) story as many others have been, don’t fret when you come to the end of this marvelous semi-allegorical tale–there are two others that you should also feel drawn to read: Paka Mdogo and The Gradual Elephant. show less

REVIEW: What first drew me to Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor was the memory of the two meerkats in Andre Norton's The Beast Master. Watching that show made me interested in meerkats for their own sake, so I wanted H. S. Toshack's The Meerkat Wars as soon as I knew it existed. When my review copy arrived, I smiled in delight at Nelson McAllister's realistically-drawn cover of a cat standing among meerkats. This is one book you can judge by its cover because the story blends realism with fantasy into a delightful whole. The author has a good sense of humor. The cat's name, Sheena, is a double play on words: not only do the adventures take place in Africa, but "queen" is another name for a female cat. Well done! (Sheena, Queen of the show more Jungle, was a comic book heroine who debuted in 1937, which makes her older than Superman. She even had her own TV show in 1955-1956. You may read about her in Mike Madrid's The Supergirls)

This is book three in a series, but it's not necessary to have read the first two books before reading this one. Sheena is part of the Allen family. When the Allens decide to take another safari to Baragandiri National Park, Sheena stows away, as she's done before. In the first chapter she manages to get lost and is menaced by a large scorpion. That's hardly the only trouble Sheena gets in. There's so much action that this book alone has enough for a good mini-series.

The encounter with the scorpion leads to meeting the Duwara meerkats. The Duwara tell Sheena about another tribe of meerkats, the Utongo. The Duwara and the Utongo used to be on good terms with each other, but no more. The Duwara tell Sheena that the Utongo want to take over their territory. There's a raid and a kidnapping. After a dangerous journey to Utongo territory, Sheena meets them. There she learns a different reason for the enmity between the tribes. The Utongo don't seem to be the monsters the Duwara led her to believe they are. Still, the Utongo share the Duwara belief that there is only one true sun -- and the other tribe lives under a false one. Both tribes have suffered because of the raid. If they go to war, the suffering will increase. Sheena is a clever cat, but is she clever enough to convince the meerkats that war isn't the answer to their differences?

The Meerkat Wars is good for home or classroom. There are teacher resources available online at litworks.com, as noted on the copyright page. As of this writing, Litworks advises that the PakaMdogo.com website will shortly be separate, but surely there will be a cross reference link when that happens. I sampled the teacher resources for The Meerkat Wars and found them very interesting. A parent might find them useful, too, should that parent want to help his/her child get more out of the book. There are plenty of good vocabulary words and opportunities for discussion, such as the predicaments Sheena finds herself in and how she uses her wits to get out of them. Sheena also provides opportunities to discuss how plans that may sound good in one's head might go terribly wrong, that it's best to learn more than one side of a story, and thinking before one speaks can be very helpful. Each chapter starts with a riddle. I'm not ashamed to admit that I usually failed to solve them before the chapters solved them for me.

The Swahili words used for the various animals give the reader a chance to exercise valuable research skills by using the internet to learn how to pronounce them. For fun, try guessing how they're pronounced first. It's good to learn that another language may have sounds not available in one's own and that trying to make those sounds can be hard. Another good thing to learn is to check more than one source. The first site I went to for "Ndugu" provided a one-word definition that didn't fit the word's use in The Meerkat Wars. The second site had a longer definition that made more sense within the book's context.

Speaking of differences in language, some of your students may notice small differences in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. That gives American teachers a chance to point out how British English and American English have diverged over the centuries.

What if you or your child just want an action-packed book with appealing characters? The Meerkat Wars delivers. I'm very glad for this chance to meet Sheena and hope to see more of her. show less

This was my November Early Reviewers' book, which arrived within the last week.

The premise was cute: an adventurous cat becomes a stowaway (by choice) on her family's vacation to the African wilderness. Left behind when her owner's Land Rover takes off unexpectedly, she encounters a meerkat while on her way back to base camp.

She winds up living with the meerkat group, learning more about their society and assisting them when problems of a serious nature crop up.

This is not a children's book, although preteens and up can and should enjoy it. As an adult, I found myself appreciating how the author played with words, and enjoyed the relationships between and amongst the animals portrayed.

Definitely worth the read, perhaps a reread in the show more future. show less

The authors knowledge of how Meerkats live, work and play is well researched, which adds to the story and the belief that you are really living like a Meerkat. The knowledge of the other types of animals encountered along the adventure is also first class.

Sheena, a poor lost cat, brings the story to life with her adventures, fights and struggles to get back to her human family. She encounters two fighting tribes of Meerkats, the Duwara tribe and the Utongo tribe. Sheena realises that both tribes need to believe in the same thing 'One Sun' to end all the fighting, so they can live in peace. Can she achieve this?

A book to be enjoyed by both young and old as the author brings the sense of humour and honour among the Meerkats alive. With show more sketches throughout the book for you to enjoy. show less

This is a sweet little middle-grade book about a house cat in Africa (named Sheena) that gets involved in a dispute between two colonies of meerkats. It's third in a series of stories about Sheena's adventures, but each story stands alone and the series can be read in any order. Youngsters will enjoy reading about the scrapes Sheena gets into and how she gets out of them and the story will help them learn about nonviolent ways to resolve differences. Recommended for all youngsters and adults who don't mind talking animals. :-)