*This* is why I read children's literature: It is so gleefully subversive. I have just finished reading Saga of a Blue Planet by Andri Magnason. It is a delightful and disturbing fable about a world much like our own. This is a world full of children who are eternally youthful, but their world is still fraught with dangers. And when a mysterious visitor arrives-- a grown-up by the name of "Mr. Goodday" who offers to show the children how to have "real" fun-- things get very interesting indeed.
I read this in translation, but although it was in English, it became immediately apparent that this book was not written by an American-- at least, not a "politically correct" one. It's not just that the children's behavior is shocking-- when they are hungry, they very casually clunk a baby seal or a lamb on the head and cook it for their supper-- it's the insidious behavior of the adult as he manipulates the children to his own ends. As the story progresses, it becomes more and more political, and some very pointed subtext is made concerning the relations between the "have's" and the "have not's" of this world. It does not take a genius to make the connection to our own.
In the end, the children decide to grant Mr. Goodday's wish and make him King, because, they decide after a lengthy discussion, this will be the easiest way to keep an eye on him. A castle, after all, is a kind of cage, and keeping the King in his castle will be a way to keep him out of trouble. When some of the children express concerns that the King will try to rule them too much, one replies, "We are the wild children. He will never rule us!"
I can't imagine this book will ever achieve publication in the United States.
2 Days til Lift-Off
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