Anastasia Strokina
| Mechta Bongo | The Bongo’s Dreams Mann-Ivanov-Ferber. 2024. 93 pages Age 8+ and adults |
Tags: philosophical tale, seasons, friendship, suffering, hope, self confidence
This book consists of four stories united with the idea of four seasons. Each story takes pace in its own month: August, November, December and March. So, in some way, a reader is going through the whole year with this book. However, all the stories are different and each of them is placed in a certain direction: a northern city, an African desert, a Japanese garden and a magical forest.
NOVEMBER: Fjuit. The story is perfect for reading with children before going to bed. This is the adventure of a feather that fell out of a duck and began an independent life. The originality of this text is that it organically combines prose sketches and poems that can encourage readers to their own creativity. Duck feather meets a wind, a snowflake, a pine, a boy, a yard dog and other heroes on its way. Each of them has its own story. This text is about how important it is to give each other warmth, even if you are a person, and the one you are trying to warm is just a duck feather.
DECEMBER: Christmas. This is the key story in the book. The action takes place in the African savanna. Animals - an elephant, a lioness with cubs, a buffalo, two underground rats and a squirrel, an African raven and a blue antelope - each separately - go to the great baobab. Each of the animals has its own story. So, for example, a lioness is trying to save her children from imminent death, a buffalo wants to punish the murderer of his brother, underground rats and a squirrel are seeking refuge, fleeing from the claws of a raven who is avenging the death of his beloved. And the blue antelope, an extinct species, comes to the earthly savanna from the heavenly one to help the souls of dead animals. All together they meet at the baobab on December 25. At this moment, the sacred tree blooms. What will the animals do running into a difficult choice? Which path will each of them choose? This is a story that states that there are cruelty, fear and suffering in the world, but also there is hope and a miracle that can happen to each of us.
MARCH: Shimada. This story is a separate part of the Christmas story. It tells about the friendship of an African turtle and a Japanese composer. Having met by chance, two lonely creatures — an African turtle that fell into the hands of poachers, and a poor young man from a working-class district of Tokyo — help each other in the most difficult moment of life. Since then, they have become inseparable. This story spans a lifetime, and we see how a poor young man became a world-famous composer. But how will a strange friendship with a turtle end? A lyrical, tender story about friendship, hope, self-confidence, music and silence. Based on a true story about a Japanese man and an African turtle.
AUGUST: In search of Zubagail. This story tales place in a magical forest, which once upon a time was the Forest of All Animals, where everyone lived in peace and harmony. But the cunning boar cruelly seized power over the animals and everything in the forest changed. For many years, the animals have been living at the mercy of the boar and his family, and only the beast Zubagail knows the truth. And one day he came back. Friends - a reed cat, a bat, an armadillo and an old hedgehog go in search of Zubagail, because the boar promised a generous reward to the one who catches him. But who is this Zubagail? What's his story? What secret is he hiding? Will it be possible to find him? This story is about the true friendship of animals of different natures, a story about a dream and the ability to sacrifice the most precious in the name of goodness and justice.
