The Meerkat Wars

The Meerkat Wars (Paka Mdogo, 3) by H.S. Toshack, 2011. 244 pages. Published by Paka Mdogo. Source: The Cadence Group for review.

It's all very well helping a young meerkat who's been poisoned by a scorpion. But when you've made friends with the whole Duwara tribe of meerkats, and you discover that they're at war with the Utongo, you may find yourself involved in that too, even if you're only a little black-and-white cat. And when you realize that the two tribes are fighting because each one believes it lives under The One True Sun, then you may have to undertake a very dangerous journey to help them see things differently. You may have to go through The Gorge.

First Sentence:

She was already thirsty.

In my experience, books with animals as the protagonist can be a little hit and miss, so I was nervous to accept The Meerkat Wars for review. I ended up worrying pretty much for nothing because this was a delightful read full of adventure and a very likable character.

The Meerkat Wars was a fun, yet action packed book about one little cat (Sheena) and her adventure with the Duwara and Utongo meerkat tribes in the Baragandiri National Park.  
I really was not expecting this book to have a lot of action and adventure, or scenes that left me wondering if Sheena was going to survive long enough to make it back to her family. So I was pleasantly surprised while reading that all of those elements were there, and there in abundance. While the sense of adventure with a dash of danger was strong in this book, I thought that the author did a very nice job of writing the scenes-mainly because he had me completely worried about the fate of the main character for the majority of the book.

Sheena, was definitely one interesting character. What I liked best about her was that she was always scheming and making plans that would supposedly help those who she had befriended. Sometimes they and other times her ideas just made everything worse.
The author definitely did an excellent job forming the personality, and cockiness that makes up a felines unique outlook on the way things work.
As for the meerkats of the Duwara and Utongo tribes, they were at times hilarious, between their similarities and the way they feuded over things like territory and whose Sun was the true one, and infuriating because they could be a bit dense.

Seriously, my favorite thing about this book would have to be Sheena, the little cat, it was just so hilarious to see how she thought and how she referred to her family. Plus her mentality totally reminded me of the little kitty that hangs around our house.
   While I really did enjoy reading The Meerkat Wars and enjoyed the writing, I did at points find that some of the sentence structure to be a little odd, like, maybe it was not originally written in English. I am not sure if it was or was not originally written in English (could not find anything out by searching). Even with that minor complaint, I still really enjoyed this book  
Final Verdict: The Meerkat Wars a fascinating tale of courage.

The Meerkat Wars earns 3.5 of 5 pineapples.