A review by 600bars
The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati
5.0
Picked this up because it had an intro by Lemony Snicket, and Kai is Sicilian and also used to work at a bear sanctuary. Plus it had cute drawings. We read the whole thing out loud, including all the discussion questions at the end. It took 3 hours and time just flew on by.
The Bears are starving on their mountain, so they invade the capital of Sicily. The Bear’s leader, King Leander, has an ulterior motive– his bear-cub Tony was kidnapped by hunters, and he hopes that he can search for Tony during the invasion. The bears have bloody battles and face trials and tribulations and intrigue along the way. (Spoiler alert) Tony is found in a dramatic scene about halfway through the book, so I was like where is this going to go from here? In the second half the bears rule over the city, but they fall into corruption and vice the further they get from their original way of life. There is more intrigue and power struggle, with some shocking surprises. King Leander feels it was a mistake for the bears to come to civilization, and that everyone was happier when they lived in harmony with nature eating berries all day. It has a fairy tale/fable tone, but it doesn’t feel like it exists only to hammer the moral message down your throat. The story is witty and engaging in its own right.
This translation kept the italian quotation marks like << >> which I thought was cool. There are also so many lovely drawings. There’s doodles throughout, and a big drawing on each chapter page, and then a detailed color drawing for all of the important scenes in the book. You could get the gist of the story if you only looked at the color images with their captions. The downside is that the drawings were placed oddly, like there would be a major spoiler in the image and you wouldn’t get to that reveal in the page until the next page. Most of the story is in prose, but a lot of it is in verse, and the verse is extremely clunky. The translator seemed to prioritize rhyme over meter, and let's just say they were really stretching it on the rhymes. It could also just be like this in Italian too. This made for some hilarity when reading out loud.
The reader’s guide, by Lemony Snicket, has some intense questions about morality. The suggested activities include kidnapping. There are also cocktail recipes, and some ASOUE hints. I just love zany dark children’s stories. They are so fun to read out loud, and this one really had it all:, a great story about corruption, power, and the value of a simple life, doodles, poems, drawings, recipes, thought provoking questions, violence, comedy, Lemony Snicket. What more could you ask for.
I googled the author when we finished, and realized I have his adult graphic novel! I bought Poem Strip without knowing anything about it. I bought it purely because I had never seen an NYRB classic be a graphic novel. Can’t wait to read it if the children’s book is this good.
The Bears are starving on their mountain, so they invade the capital of Sicily. The Bear’s leader, King Leander, has an ulterior motive– his bear-cub Tony was kidnapped by hunters, and he hopes that he can search for Tony during the invasion. The bears have bloody battles and face trials and tribulations and intrigue along the way. (Spoiler alert) Tony is found in a dramatic scene about halfway through the book, so I was like where is this going to go from here? In the second half the bears rule over the city, but they fall into corruption and vice the further they get from their original way of life. There is more intrigue and power struggle, with some shocking surprises. King Leander feels it was a mistake for the bears to come to civilization, and that everyone was happier when they lived in harmony with nature eating berries all day. It has a fairy tale/fable tone, but it doesn’t feel like it exists only to hammer the moral message down your throat. The story is witty and engaging in its own right.
This translation kept the italian quotation marks like << >> which I thought was cool. There are also so many lovely drawings. There’s doodles throughout, and a big drawing on each chapter page, and then a detailed color drawing for all of the important scenes in the book. You could get the gist of the story if you only looked at the color images with their captions. The downside is that the drawings were placed oddly, like there would be a major spoiler in the image and you wouldn’t get to that reveal in the page until the next page. Most of the story is in prose, but a lot of it is in verse, and the verse is extremely clunky. The translator seemed to prioritize rhyme over meter, and let's just say they were really stretching it on the rhymes. It could also just be like this in Italian too. This made for some hilarity when reading out loud.
The reader’s guide, by Lemony Snicket, has some intense questions about morality. The suggested activities include kidnapping. There are also cocktail recipes, and some ASOUE hints. I just love zany dark children’s stories. They are so fun to read out loud, and this one really had it all:, a great story about corruption, power, and the value of a simple life, doodles, poems, drawings, recipes, thought provoking questions, violence, comedy, Lemony Snicket. What more could you ask for.
I googled the author when we finished, and realized I have his adult graphic novel! I bought Poem Strip without knowing anything about it. I bought it purely because I had never seen an NYRB classic be a graphic novel. Can’t wait to read it if the children’s book is this good.