In the year 2000, when this book was first published, I wanted to create a book which could be given to a child who was starting school at the age of 5 years and which could be read by them progressively until the age of 13 years when they either moved up to ‘Middle or High School.’ I also wanted to mark their memory of the New Millennium with their own special book.
Because the reading age between all children of between 5 years of age and 13 is so vast, this project naturally involved the writing of a number of stories that catered for children of different chronological ages and reading abilities.
The outcome of this idea was the publication of the book ‘Bes’; which contains four interdependent stories that links in theme. The four stories would concern four types of creatures, a bear (for 5-7 year old readers), an elephant (for 7-9 year old readers), a sheep (for 9-11 year old readers), and a New Millennium spiritual creature called ‘Bes’, who was part bear, part elephant and part sheep in both appearance and disposition( for 9-13 year old reader).
‘Solo and Solomon’ is a story written for the 9-11 years old reader. It is a story about a rebellious sheep who wants to go her own way and uses every opportunity to flout the rules of the flock and instead assert her total independence from the rest of the flock. It is an ideal story to use as a discussion starter with pupils in the classroom. The overall message reminds the reader that just as in every ‘Solomon’ can be found a ‘Solo’ then so it is that in every ‘leader’ can be found a ‘rebel’ and vice versa.
