(Amazon.com had no image of this book when this review was written. So here is a picture of a landslide...from Morguefile, where I didn't find the photographer's name at the time.)
Author: Victor Iturralde Rua
Date: 1987
Publisher: Libros del Quirquincho
ISBN: 950-9732-51-6
Length: 46 pages
Illustrations: drawings by Istvan
Quote: "El 16 de julio...no habia ruidos, ni carcajadas. Las puertas estaban cerradas, se caminaban casi en punta de pies."
(On the sixteenth of July there were no noises, no laughter. The doors were shut; people went around almost on tiptoe.)
This is a mildly scary story about a faraway village, high in the mountains, where the superstitious villagers celebrated something or other every day, except on the sixteenth of July, when they were silent and mournful. One particular word, the name of a man who had been lost in an avalanche, was forbidden. Any noise on that day, the villagers feared, might start another avalanche (un bramido horripilante, a hair-raising noise).
Sure enough, a bratty little boy finds out the forbidden word and screams it over and over, just to scare his grandparents. And a landslide begins. But the boy and his grandparents survive. And the villagers change their observance of the sixteenth of July.
El Bramido Horripilante is not recommended to anyone who might allow it to be used to encourage noisy, disobedient children. Because of its short length, it is recommended to first year Spanish students; they may need to consult a dictionary but they'll be able to follow the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment