The Blue Boy - Softcover

Auer, Martin; Klages, Simone

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057505302X ISBN 13: 9780575053021

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co, 1992

Synopsis

When his parents die in a war, a boy from another planet rejects any form of kindness, seeks companionship from weapons, and searches for a friend who will never die.

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5-- A German allegory with a heavy-handed antiwar message. On a distant planet, blue-skinned people adapt to the aftermath of war. A lone boy, fearing attachment to anything capable of dying, stomps on flowers, chases a dog, and threatens an old lady with a gun. He escalates his terrorism by constructing a giant robot that chases people and asks if any are invulnerable. He hears of one such man, who lives on the moon, and transforms his robot into a rocket ship to make the journey. He finds the old man and learns, as he observes the blue planet through a telescope, that selfish ignorance leads to war. The boy is invited to stay if he is willing to disarm. He hurls his gun away and it breaks on the planet below--to which the boy may someday return to tell what he has learned. The publisher's linking this book to Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince (HBJ, 1943) and Briggs's When the Wind Blows (Viking, 1988) is wishful thinking. Blue Boy lacks poetry, irony, or a credible outcome. The comic-book for mat may attract reluctant readers, but the small type and disjointed narrative will not. --Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 057505302X
• ISBN 13: 9780575053021
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 30