Review by Chika T C -- Bedu: Bedouin Boy, Poet King

[Chika T C]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Bedu: Bedouin Boy, Poet King" by David W. Sutherland and Paul McKellips.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Who we are, dictates what we do, how do we do it. And what we do, reflects who we are. Some people define who they are by what they do, only so long as it's in harmony with who they truly are. When the eulogies of our lives are written, will they read our resumes and talk about what we did and accomplished in life (do), or will they speak to who we were as people and how we treated others with love, compassion, and respect (be)? This reflects the message of the book Bedu:Bedouin Boy,The Poet King by Colonel David W. Sutherland discusses.

The book concerns the Shepherd boy from Damascus. He was to start an adventure of purpose and destiny to Hebron, sent by his father Abba, to the tribe of his father's cousins, the Bedouins. The journey was to take him nineteen to Hebron and thirty-six days to bring back the flock home, signifying his successful adventure. Was he going to succeed?

However, the success of his journey was doubtful as he encountered several challenges and experiences which changed his life. Some of such bitter and sweet experiences are, the drowning boy near Jericho which he saved from death. The robbery on the way to Efrat and the stranger who took him in, nurtured him back to health, gave him work and three shekels of silver, and made him a new sheepskin satchel. He had encounters with outcasts in Halhul, he fed them with the last shekels on him. There in Hebron, he learned certain businesses of sheep breeding. Despite his ordeals during his adventure, as a result of his leadership qualities, he became innovative and raised a school of poetry that flourished in a little period. His most interesting part of his journey was the tree woman named Yasmin who captured his heart and became his confidant. Not knowing that Yasmin is the granddaughter of a king, this posed a problem for both as they intend to marry.

The style of writing employed by the author is excellent. He developed an acronym, “CULTURE” which he picked each alphabet to buttress a life lesson from Bedu' journey and Bedu' character during his adventure. He uses such to instruct his readers on not just being productive but having the requisite character formations for the journey of life. The author, in his ability and wisdom, used Bedu's personality to eulogize readers to embrace love, compassion, and respect. Also, there were footnotes at the end of every chapter of the book which captures in a few sentences the lesson embodied in the foregoing chapter.

What I liked the most in this book by David W. Sutherland, is the rustic setting. I was persuaded to believe that the author is familiar with the Jewish environment. This is because, the names of places and locations are all in the Jewish community, though not all. And I also liked the fact that his writing was inspired by certain biblical personalities like, The Speaker, who like Jesus stands on a mountain to speak when people gather around him. The speaker here talks about the Be-Attitudes preached by Jesus in the Bible. These allegories were intriguing to me.

There was nothing I disliked about the book, except that certain names and mode of living was difficult for me to relate because such is no longer captured in our contemporary times. Their mode of buying and selling, clothing, transportation, and sundry could pose a problem with any reader who is not familiar with the ancient Greek style of living. At first, I thought the author wanted to write on the birth of Jesus in a fictional novel as there was the same recount of the story of the three wise men and how they were led by the stars to the manger. One of the wise men was King Melchoir who happened to be the grandfather of Yasmin.

There were no many grammatical errors in the book. Only in two places, I noticed in the book. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars, this is because the book was professionally edited and the line of thought in this book was easy to flow with and comprehend. There were no ambiguous words used. I recommend this book to those who enjoy biblical stories and allegories. And also, business establishments tend to focus their attention not just on expertise and productivity but also on character formation.

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Bedu: Bedouin Boy, Poet King
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[AnnOgochukwu]

Wow. This book calls me! I love adventure, and this this sounds like a perfect one to me. And this review is amazing. Lovely.

[Marty_Kelly]

Great review. I really like your opening paragraph. What I liked me most about this book was it's style. It reminded me of fables.