Butterfly Battle - The Story of the Great Insect War: 500 - Brossura

Neil Behrmann

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0953384306 ISBN 13: 9780953384303

Casa editrice: Readmore Books, 1998

Riassunto

Butterfly Battle is aimed at children between the ages of nine to eleven, but crosses the age borders. Children of six to eight enjoyed the exciting fantasy when it was read to them at school. Adults have been captivated by the story. The book is vigorously anti-war, but also shows that war is sometimes forced on us. Superwasps invade Leponea, a peaceful butterfly paradise. Robert and his sister Kim enter the insect world and join in the fight for freedom. The Superwasp characters symbolise Nazis and other fascists. The butterfly characters and their insect allies are like our grand parents and great grand parents, who had to make a stand and fight Hitler. Then the anti-war message: Robert who is fascinated with computer war games, soon discovers the awful reality of an actual war. The soldiers are insects but behave like human soldiers. They fret and struggle to fall asleep before the battle. When the action begins, they fight bravely, but panic when the battle goes against them. The inhabitants of Leponea suffer alongside the many wounded soldiers. The book promotes conservation and sparks an interest in insects. It delves into the mystery of life and death. This anti-war fantasy has had brilliant reviews (see below and www.readmore-books.com) Illustrator Oscar Chichoni's art ranks amongst the top in the genre of Science Fiction/Fantastic Realism.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

This is a highly original and exciting book. It tells the story of a war between the insects: the superwasps versus the rest. Two pre-pubescent children, Kim and Robert, find themselves shrunken down to insect size and drafted in to help. We follow their adventures and the saving of Leponea, the land of the butterflies, and meet some wonderful characters on the way: Morpho, the brave, resourceful daughter of the emperor of all the butterflies and her husband, Morphan. We also meet the demonical dictator, Wreka, leader of the superwasps. The book is masterly in its interweaving or the lifestyles of various insects with the demands of a modern war story: and Robert s understanding of military strategy which he learned from his computer games is handled with assurance and effect. Description is a strong point of the book, especially the battle scenes which are magnificently conveyed. They are realistic and convincing, and will allow children to begin to understand something of the horror, as well as the heroism, of all wars. The black and white drawings are sensitive, well researched and detailed, adding a great deal to the visualisation of the text. An exciting, fast-paced book which will appeal to children between 8 and 14. Irene Babsky --The School Librarian Magazine

A gripping fantasy on one level, there are many deep messages within the story. My 10 year old loved it - --The London Parents Guide: titles for 9-l4 yrs

Dear Neil, Just a note to thank you for your visit to school during our Book Week. The children enjoyed the talk immensely and it complemented my previous readings of your book. We at Baden Powell are doing our utmost to encourage our pupils to read more books, not only to improve literacy, but to fire their imaginations. It can be so difficult to capture their attention when they get to the latter stages of primary school, particularly the boys who read less fiction than the girls. When I read Butterfly Battle, I found that the class was totally absorbed. The plot is exciting as each chapter ends with a cliff hanger. It helped me with history lessons because of parallels with the Second World War. The children were very pleased with themselves when they were able to identify characters that had been based on a person from history. It also described the creatures in such wonderful detail that the children were enthralled by the battle jobs that the insects carried out.I am recommending Butterfly Battle to Christine Clipson, Literacy consultant at Hackney Education Literacy Programme, as we have often discussed the need to find books that encourage reluctant readers, in particular boys. With kind regards Collen Harris (More reviews at http://www.readmore-books.com/butterfly-reviews.htm) --Teacher at Baden Powell School, Hackney, London

L'autore:

Neil Behrmann is a journalist and author based in London. Jack of Diamonds, an unusual thriller for ages 15 upwards, is his latest book. Soon to be published, it is a stand alone sequel to Trader Jack - The Story of Jack Miner (also for ages 15 upwards). Butterfly Battle was updated in 2015 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo as the book opens with the scene. This edition is currently on kindle and other ebooks. Neil is currently London correspondent of Business Times Singapore and he was a correspondent of the Wall Street Journal for more than two decades. Neil has contributed articles to other newspapers and magazines in the US, UK, Asia, South Africa and Australia. Butterfly Battle was Neil's first fictional work. The story evolved from travels and research in Africa, India, South East Asia and other countries. Neil feels strongly about conservation and environmental issues. A children's novel, of course, has to be a page turner with plenty of twists, turns and sub-plots. But I also wanted Butterfly Battle to put forward some messages. It would be anti-war but also show that sometimes force cannot be avoided; that sometimes whether one likes it or not one has to make a stand and fight evil dictators such as Hitler. In researching the book, Neil visited the Waterloo battlefield near Brussels and wrote articles for The Wall Street Journal and Business Times, Singapore. He went there to sense the battle atmosphere of the opening computer game chapter. After reading countless books and articles on insects and visiting butterfly conservation centres, Neil found that so called creepy crawlies are immensely sophisticated and powerful. Bombadier Beetles, the Allies' artillery, squirt acid in real life. Leaf cutting ants build bridges. The insect characters, by and large, can carry out the tasks described in the plot. See:- http://www.readmore-books.com/butterfly-author.htm

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Readmore Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0953384306
• ISBN 13: 9780953384303
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 156
• Disegnatore: Oscar Chichoni