The Man With No Shadow

by Gökhan Yücel, Zeynep Başay

This is a story about a man who, one day, loses his shadow.

72 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2018

Reviews

[Beccy Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

You could use this picture book with children of all ages: the story is deceptively simple but the themes and illustrations leave clues for much older children to think about. One key idea is the use of different animals to represent emotions, ranging from the easily-identified scared rabbit to a more complex deer or bison. Another great theme this book touches on is isolation - why does the man need his shadow? Why is he so comforted when he gets it back? I also love this book's artwork, children instantly notice the black and white but when they look closer there is so much more to pick out about the drawing style that could feed into a series of art lessons. Finally, something I think this book does quite uniquely among children's literature is talk about therapy and show its use to help people. I can imagine a series of English/psche lessons imagining just what the man and the physician were talking about, generating discussion both about feelings and the ways we try to describe them to others.

[Polly Bibby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Story is written by Gökhan Yücel, an author who I had just discovered. I found this story very easy to read as it is focused towards younger children. However I found the content very powerful even just the fewest of words, I believe it was full of metaphors surrounding a psychological imagination. The story involves a man who one day loses his shadow, he feels alone and lost in the world. The illustrator Zepnep Basay, is very talented. I found the design of the book very creative. It gave me a kind of “Tim Burton” feel and what can I say, I love the creepy conception. The grey scale pencil drawings are full of detail and mystery. I just wished the story was a little more longer as I found it very limited.

I’m questioning now, The man without a shadow, what happens to him once he gets his shadow back. Does it ever leave again? Not every story has a happy ending. If you wish to purchase this novel, you can find it on multiple websites such as Olympia Publishers, Amazon etc.