Amal the Thirsty Gamal: A Christmas Tale by Robert Schorr | Review | Giveaway
A book blog tour from iRead Book Tours.
Thank you to the author, publisher, & Lauren at iRead for providing me the information for this tour. 
Book Details
Amal the Thirsty Gamal: A Christmas Tale by Robert Schorr Published by Mascot Books on 07/06/2021
Genres: Animals, Fiction, Children's, Christian
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 38
Add to GoodreadsAmal the Thirsty Gamal is for every child who might be struggling with how he or she is perceived by others. (Oh yes, camels care about that, too!)
Our little hero has spent too many years listening to all the wrong voices and thinking all the wrong things: about his hump, about his appearance, about himself.
But―oh!―get ready! Because “wise men” have joined this particular caravan journey, and when one of them speaks up around the campfire one night, everything changes for little Amal the Gamal!
Source: iRead Book Tours, Received from the author or publisher for review.
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Purchase Links for Amal the Thirsty Gamal
Amazon Amazon UK BookShop/IndieBound
Barnes & Noble The Book Depository
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My thoughts on Amal the Thirsty Gamal
Amal is a delightful tale about a young camel with some serious self-image issues. He is convinced he cannot do what the other camels do because his hump is so small.
When he must travel on a journey with the Three Wise Men, he learns he is made of sterner stuff than he thought. He is able to perform feats the others cannot because he has a flatter hump. He also learns not to listen to what others have to say about him when he learns the truth about camel humps from the wise men.
He soon gains the confidence to lead the band to Bethlehem and once there he undertakes an even greater task.
The story is a little “wordier” than usual books for young readers, but I believe it’s quite understandable. Readers of all ages should enjoy this entertaining tale.
The illustrations are drawn by Kristina Koontz and fit the story extremely well. They help give the entire story an extra lift, especially for young children who are being read to.
This tale will be perfect for family Holiday reading.
I received a copy of the book for the tour. This review is my honest, unbiased opinion.
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About Robert Schorr
Robert Schorr resides in San Clemente, California, with his wife Sharilyn. They have two grown sons with families of their own now.
For twenty-six years he served as Senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel Old Towne, in Orange, California. Prior to that, they lived in Taiwan, where he taught British and American Literature at Taipei Christ's College for eleven years; and then moved south to San Yi for another six years, to establish and pastor a church among the Hakka Chinese.
He is devoted to his Savior, to Sharilyn, his children, flying, hiking, fly-fishing, Chinese and, of course, writing. He loves the story of the downtrodden champion and he knew a long time ago that little Amal had one of those to tell.
He is the author of The Morning Frigate, a literary weblog (https://www.themorningfrigate.com) and is currently producing the first two novels of an EK Lingle Mystery Series: Lingle's War and Easy Street.
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An interview with Robert Schorr
Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer and, if so, can you explain why?
Robert: Oh, well, that does go a long way back… at least to the third grade. One evening after watching what I thought was a fabulous detective story on TV, I stayed up half the night writing a narrative of the entire plot. The next day I brought it to school for a writing assignment. The teacher scolded me for plagiarism. She’d seen the TV show herself!
It was third grade, and I was pretty embarrassed, but I wasn’t trying to pass it off as my own invention. I just wanted to do the writing, the word-crafting — to put what I’d seen into my own words. Somehow that was important to me. I wanted that skill. I hadn’t even thought about originality. It wasn’t a bad way to learn. As to why—why I’ve always wanted to do that? I really don’t know. I can’t explain it.
Q: What else have you written?
Robert: My opus is rather motley, really. I have a short story in a fly-fishing magazine from years ago. I have a collection of 1,300 inspirational articles that I’ve accumulated over the years — literary and historical anecdotes of spiritual and inspirational significance. I’m producing a literary blog The Morning Frigate, which is a lot of fun. And I’m in the birth pangs of a detective series right now, about halfway through the second novel. No matter what it is I find to do, I always enjoy it immensely.
Q: Well, Amal the Thirsty Gamal is delightful. Tell me: was it an easy task? Can you get writer’s block with a children’s book? And what do you do with writer’s block?
Robert: Oh, yeah. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated a work is. If there’s a plot at all, the road can get blocked. In my case, I did just fine introducing my poor little camel with his negligible hump and his psychosomatic thirst, but then I got stuck. How was I going to solve it? I was very busy with my work at the time and had to just set it aside for months on end.
You’ll often hear writers advise about writer’s block “just keep on writing,” “just push through,” they say. But I have a slightly different view of writer’s block. I tend to trust it more than others do. If I’m blocked, there’s a reason, and it’s usually a good one. I’ve taken a wrong turn, or I’ve skipped a step in development, or there’s a faulty premise. And if I just keep going, I’m going to become more and more dissatisfied. So, stop, re-think, discard, analyze, and especially—wait. I know it’s a little scary to advise “waiting,” but I do to some extent. Not passively waiting, I guess I should say; that will never do. Let’s call it “actively waiting.”
There is a very distinct and familiar feeling of satisfaction that comes when the path finally opens up again. I do keep striving for that and I wait until it comes. And when it finally does, it feels good. All sense of “bother” is gone. I love how my little camel’s problems are so neatly resolved by that “wise man” at the campfire that night, exposing a piece of faulty science. But that did take a bit of a wait before it came.
Q: Let’s talk about the age range of Amal the Thirsty Gamal. It does have a slightly mature vocabulary.
Robert: Yes, I’m glad you mentioned that. There are about a dozen words throughout the story that may challenge my youngest readers: “absurd” … “specific” … “perish” … “myrrh” … “magi,” and a few more. I thought about swapping these out. But I must confess that I’m rather old-school in that regard. And I have seen first-hand—and have long been impressed with—the “education” our kids can receive around a dinner table. There is no lesson plan, there are no dictionaries, mom and dad may not even be explaining much, but those kids are absorbing it all and to a remarkable degree!
I remember walking home from the beach with my 3-year-old granddaughter one day and hearing her say, “Well, frankly Grampa…” Three years old! I cut her short and said, “Evie, do you know what ‘frankly’ means?” She fixed me with a look of surprise. “No,” she said. “What does it mean?” But she knew exactly how to use it! And I really think she did know!
I’m hoping something similar happens with these few words. “Myrrh” and “magi” will need explaining, I’m sure of that. I just recently spoke with a 9-year-old reader who enjoyed the book and seemed to have no problem and that gave me some assurance. I’m saying 6-10, just to have an age range. It’s not a “reader,” it’s a story, and the younger ones will still enjoy it, even if a few words elude them. And those older than ten—any age, actually—will enjoy it on a different level.
Q: Let’s talk about that for a moment. What do you see as a “different level” to the story? What would an older reader appreciate there?
Robert: Hmm, well take, for example, the Christmas story. In the Scriptural version (and the one I don’t ever want to tamper with), we are all there at Bethlehem and everyone just arrives. But it’s been fun to pursue the story from the perspective of a “westward journey”. We join a caravan far away in the east. We follow it across the blazing Sahara. We stop at oases, we rest by a campfire, merchants and travelers and wise men all converse together; strangers arrive, going the opposite way, with rumors that “a king has been born in a manger of hay”.
It’s enriching to speculate just what that journey must have been like (T.S. Eliot did that, by the way, in one of his beautiful poems. I guess I’d better acknowledge that or there I go “plagiarizing” again! My third-grade teacher might still be listening!).
I hope my more mature readers enjoy the experience of it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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Giveaway!
Enter to win a signed copy of AMAL THE THIRSTY GAMAL! (one winner/USA only) (ends Aug 2)
AMAL THE THIRSTY GAMAL Book Tour Giveaway
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Purchase Amal the Thirsty Gamal online from a local book store.
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Thank you Gina for the very thoughtful review! And subtle too, you didn’t give away a bit of my little climax. Thanks for the kind interview too.
Love your website
Robert Schorr
Love the book cover and excerpt. Looks and sounds like a fantastic. Would love to read review this book in print format. I read all genres including childrens books like and they are really enjoying. This book looks like it’s fun, intriguing and so much more.
Love the illustrations.
Hope I Win
Okay, I’ll hope too.