The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
by Kate DiCamillo, Bagram Ibatoulline (illustrator) (2006)
The cover illustration was what first caught my eye, but I find the story itself cliché and formulaic: a vain, indifferent, very finely-crafted china rabbit who “has never felt love” suddenly finds himself lost, away from all comforts he has previously taken for granted. He then encounters various (one-dimensional) characters that adopt him and starts to feel “emotions”. The book has received many glowing reviews lately, but the heavy-handed message to “open up your heart to love” is just, well, a bit too much for me.
Then again, I do loathe Amélie. And I dislike The Alchemist. You might not. So perhaps you’ll like it.
The illustrations are pretty though, in that kind of classic soft details. Wish there were more of them.
Official website: http://www.edwardtulane.com/
Tags:children-literature, fiction, picture-book
DiCamillo, Kate, fiction
April 7, 2006 @ 10:21 pm | 1 Comment
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April 14th, 2006at 12:06 am(#)
[...] And since Easter is coming (and in the wake of Gospels of whoever…): The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, Bagram Ibatoulline (illustrator). Nice illustrations, (sub-)standard story. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago. Angsty Jesus. Imagine Jesus as Ikari Shinji, the Devil as Nagisa Kaoru. (If I made it sound bad, not at all. A Saramago’s is almost always worth reading.) [...]