How the Tortoise Got His Scars

About the Book

This is a story of a tortoise that captivated the animal world with the beauty of his shell, which seemed to illuminate its path with colors of the rainbow. This story takes place in the animal world, where a long-forgotten language was spoken. You will be spellbound by the tortoise’s demise when his shell ended up with scars and lost its luminous beauty.

About the Author

Dinah Senkungu was born and raised in Uganda. She is currently living in Pennsylvania with her family. Ms. Senkungu has a passion for sharing her African heritage to her children as well as students of all walks of life. She started storytelling to preschool children when her son enrolled in the neighborhood head start. As her son changed grades, she tweaked her stories to meet the new grade level. When her audience, teachers, and students started to request for copies of these stories, Ms. Senkungu started writing. She is still sharing her African stories while working as a special education teacher. Her stories have warmed the hearts of preschool children as well as college students. Ms. Senkungu believes that these culturally rich spoken lessons that for centuries safeguarded the African identity as a people have weakened in recent generations. This compels her to revive and give value to her African heritage. She believes that in sharing the rich African tales, a true treasure of African tradition, she transcends all cultures. The telling and reading of stories allows young children to experience not only the sounds of language that will be represented by words on a page but also allows them the ability to appreciate the power of language itself. It is only within the story that the writer uses words to paint vivid word pictures, and it is in the context of this developmental sequence that the function of words and language are learned most effectively.