Yaba Badoe - Wolf Light - Book Review - Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books


Yaba Badoe is an award-winning Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker and writer. Her first acclaimed children's novel was A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2019. Wolf Light is her second children's book and will be released in paperback this Jan 2020 by Zephyr. It has an absolutely fantastic book cover which has been illustrated by Leo Nickolls. I think it is amazing and just love it. 

After a brief flicker and a flutter of the pages, you are instantly transported into a place of pure fantasy and magical realism. There are three sacred places of sanctuary in this book, each with its own narrative that goes straight to the human heart. It starts with three spiritual sisters: Zula, Adoma, and Linet who are connected by their destiny from the day they were born. Even though they all live in a different part of the world, they share a special spiritual connection. As a result, they have to harness the magic of the elements and protect their sacred spaces by watching over the respective lands where they live. 

This journey enables us to dance through the tropical forests of Ghana as well as sing with the harsh stormy moors of Cornwall. It is a very powerful story that considers the relationships we have with the world around us and the consequences of the damage we cause to this planet every day. A voice is calling on the elemental spirits and, thus, planting the seed of a plot before showering us with a beautiful and extraordinary tale. 

You will embark upon a brilliant story of both light and darkness which pulses with loss, love and the eternal destruction of the planet. The tale takes us on a whirlwind of an adventure as the leopard dances and leaps under the moon and a wolf howls in the distance. This poetic vision of colour rustles through the trees and shimmers on the lakeshore. This is a great topical read that is very thought-provoking. It covers some important themes such as feminism, family, relationships, and environmental damage. All of which are told as a brilliant narrative, they are certainly as good as any you will read for some time. This is a book to savour and contemplate as the earth lives and breathes around us. 

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