 Shola is a small white, highly cultivated and opinionated dog with a huge imagination. She lives with her long-suffering owner, Senor Grogo. Four short stories are included in this one volume, with comic pen and ink and watercolor illustrations on practically every double page spread. In the first story, Shola discovers her inner lioness. In the second, she leads the pack on a wild sheepboar hunt. Third, she helps another dog, Angelino, who is plagued by a mouse. And finally, Shola is visited by her eccentric Aunt Clementine from America, who can never remember the pronunciation of Shola’s name, but completely understands Sholas’ independence. Feisty Shola is used to doing and eating exactly what she wants and walking in the park without a collar and lead. The use of language is delightful, especially the use of rarely used words, like “discombobulated” and “rara avis” (Latin for strange creature). Shola doesn’t always understand the words and this results in some very funny consequences. mjw |
| Title: The Adventures Of Shola Author: Bernardo Atxaga Illustrator: Mikel Valverde Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books, London Copyright: 2013 Original Language: Euskera (Basque) Translator: Translated into Spanish by the author. Translated in English by Margaret Jull Costa. Original Spanish Title: Shola y los leones, Sholas y los jabalies, Shola y Angelino, Shola y la tia de America Original Spanish Publisher: Ediciones SM Original Spanish Copyright: 1995, 1997, 2006, forthcoming ISBN: 978-1-782690-09-2 Hardcover pages: 220 Age range: 9-12 Genre: Fiction Book setting: Spain Author’s ethnicity: Basque Author’s residence: Spain Illustrator’s ethnicity: Basque Illustrator’s residence: Spain Awards: 2015 Marsh Award for Literature in Translation Subjects: Aunts, Dogs, Food, Lions, Human-animal interactions, Short stories, Wild boar |
The Adventures Of Shola
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In 1934, a young man named Vango on the cusp of taking priestly vows is suddenly made a fugitive. Accused of murder, pursued by police and mysterious others, Vango finds that proving his innocence involves uncovering secrets from his past, taking him from Parisian rooftops to Mediterranean islands to Scottish forests in a hyper-coloured spy-thriller with a backwards-and-forwards timeline. Part of the book’s charm involves historic figures turned into characters – like Hugo Eckener (commander of the Graf Zeppelin) who de Fombelle has written as a friend of Vango and as a quick-witted protester to Hitler’s increasing regime. Snippets of story are also told from the perspective of a young girl who turns out to be Stalin’s daughter. These historic guess-who’s never felt clunky. With a larger-than-life protagonist, Vango will appeal to lovers of daring escapades. The mystery to his identity unravels in the sequel, Vango, Book 2, A Prince Without A Kingdom, published in 2105. ew
