No Room for Napoleon
by Adria Meserve
Napoleon's a bossy dachsund who beaches his rowboat on the sweet, green isle of his dreams and befriends the natives: a bunny, a bear and a crab. They start off hospitably, but he then expects their treats. And play becomes work -- as in, build my castle!
This canine conquistador even keeps an eye on them through his telescope. Bad doggy.
After the whole isle's nothing but a waste heap, the oppressed trio flees to a sunnier spot, only to be pursued by a remorseful Napoleon, who makes amends with environmental remediation and a few games of fetch.
Sure, you can substitute bossy white folks landing on [fill in name of land mass here] and assuming it was uninhabited because the locals dressed funny or prayed to an unfamiliar deity.
Me, I saw crab, bear and bunny as total suckers for not seeing what's coming. And doubly so for scampering off instead of staging a rebellion and sticking a skewer through that hot dog.
Longtime readers (there must be two of you by now) will know I'm once again reading too much into a children's book. Not all of them are thinly veiled metaphors for everything that goes wrong in the adult world. But pretty close.
Rating: *\*\
Not a bit of it. No one ever reads too much into a children's book, or so thinketh I. Those who claim that that's what you're doing are offering only the weakest of defenses when they can't argue your points. This book sounds like one I shall probably avoid. Thanks for the tip!
Posted by: Fuse #8 | April 19, 2006 at 07:05 AM
Geez, it just kills me to condemn a book. It wasn't all bad, just not spectacular. And I have a lot of spectacular books sitting on my shelf.
Posted by: Anne | April 20, 2006 at 06:26 AM