Book Review: For the love of a goat

Title: A Goatboy Never Cries

Author: Hazel D. Campbell

Illustrated by: Courtney Lloyd Robinson

Publishers: LMH Publishing Limited

Reviewed by: Shaunette Wright

There are pets of every kind in this world - dogs, cats, pigs, fish, reptiles and rodents. Most children ask for pets that are easy to care for, some don't want pets at all. Johnny is one such child. He has plans for his summer holiday, but things don't go according to plan. Johnny ends up with a goat!

Johnny's family, consisting of six: Dad, Jack; mother, Jennifer; sister Jasmine (the eldest); Jonathan (Johnny), sister Jillian and Jacinth (the baby), heads out to their new home in the country. All are excited, but the children are especially anxious because they are promised rooms of their own. At first, they are not impressed because of the location of the home, missing their friends and the uncertainty of summer activities, but they adapt.

Dad orders mutton from a man in the country, but the man misunderstands and, instead, sends a goat! Rather than sending the animal back, Dad decides to fatten it for a future meal. This is to Johnny's dismay. Since he's the only boy, he gets the responsibility to bring the goat out every morning and tie it where it can get enough to eat, give it water and take it home in the evenings.

Johnny hates this and tries to bargain with Jillian, who has to help Mother with the chickens, to share the responsibility. But he is stuck. Things get worse when the other boys in the neighbourhood begin teasing him and calling him 'The Goatboy'.

a fun book

What a horrible summer it is going to be. Johnny wonders why this is happening to him. But things take a turn for the better and the goat, which Johnny names Gringo, changes his life, and that of Jillian, for a long time after that summer. What happens?

A Goatboy Never Cries, a 13-chapter book, tells it all. Illustrations, which appear in 10 chapters, make the book fun to read and will help push the imagination, especially for those children whose knowledge of the countryside is limited.

The text is great for children six to 10 years old. A simple and easy read, A Goatboy Never Cries can be completed in one sitting. The language makes reading simple, as the author tells the story through a child's eyes and uses some well-known local expressions such as "bag an' pan", "wash belly" and "puppa-lick" to bring a familiar 0feel to the text. Of course, a small glossary can be found at the end of the story to clarify the colloquial terms used.

simple tale, complex themes

Although a simple tale, Campbell uses the story to address themes such as family, friendship, love, loyalty and responsibility. An example of responsibility is seen with Johnny and the goat. Johnny hates taking care of Gringo at the beginning, but eventually he takes his responsibility seriously because he has grown to love the goat. At the end of the story, Jillian tells us Johnny "never again ate curry goat or anything with mutton in it."

Author Hazel D. Campbell is a specialist in fiction and has published three other books: Ramgoat Dashalong, Tilly Bummie and Juicebox and Scandal. She continues to write and edit children's literature and administers courses for the writing of children's literature and short stories at the Philip Sherlock Centre of the Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The book's illustrator is Courtney Lloyd Robinson.