An African Tale of the Enchanted Toy

By Joseph Pollakoff

An African Fairy tale the enchanted toy is a magical story with breathtaking illustrations created by a recognized illustrator who painted for Maya Angelou as well as other profound celebrities. The story is as beautiful as the illustrations. It is a great book for both boys and girls. The story takes place in Ancient Africa amongst luscious jun

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Feb 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949574654

Joseph Pollakoff

Joseph Pollakoff was a victim of physical, psychological and sexual abuse as a child. He had to write and draw in secret during his childhood and said, "it gave me great incentive to pursue the forbidden fruit." Growing up in an atmosphere with mentally unstable and abusive parents he found relief from being trafficked and their chronic abuse by expressing himself through his writing, drawing and painting. Being self-taught, he had little contact with the mainstream art until he was discovered by Shonna McDaniels, Director of the Sojourner Truth Multi-Cultural Art Museum. He went on to paint for profound celebrities including Maya Angelou. He has also worked as a curator, historian and resident artist for the Sojourner Truth Multi-Cultural Museum. He provides and teach classes free for youth empowerment, African Diaspora and painting for impoverished populations. He currently lives with his spouse in Elk Grove California with his rescued dogs and cats.

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Copyright © 2019 Joseph Pollakoff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America.

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Long,

long ago in a small Nubian village, in Africa, lived a poor little blind boy, named Tumaini. In those ancient times all poor children had to work, or be sold as slaves. Poor children did not own toys as their parents could not afford to buy them. Sending a child to school required money, so poor children did not go to school and never learned to read and write.

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They stayed poor even after they grew up. Entertainment, toys and school were considered luxuries for only the royal and rich children in the kingdom. Rich children spent most of their days being entertained, and had servants to do their chores.

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Poor children had to work as hard as adults, sometimes harder in order to not get sold as slaves. They would get paid one cowry shell which was worth less than a penny for a day’s work. Cowry shells are small white shells that were used as money in many African kingdoms. It was not unusual to see five-year old boys, digging ditches for ten hours a day, in the hard, baked, African dirt. When the earth baked in the sun too long without rain, it made the dirt, like cement, too hard to break open and the child ended up earning nothing, for working all day just trying to dig a hole and not succeeding. When the weather permitted and, the child was able to dig ditches, he would be paid only one shell for the whole day’s work. One cowry shell was not enough to buy even one flat loaf of bread. Children did not complain about the hard work, as they would rather work hard then be sold as a slave. Children felt very lucky when they got a job inside scrubbing hut floors, so they would not have to