By Berkeley Breathed (Little, Brown & Co.)
ISBN: 0-316-10758-1
For most of the 1980s and early 1990s Berké Breathed dominated the American newspaper comic strip scene with his astoundingly funny surreal political fantasy strip Bloom County and latterly Outland (mercifully still available – so don’t wait for my reviews, just order them now!). At the top of his game he retired from strip cartooning and began to create a series of lavish children’s picture books that rank among the best America has ever produced.
A Wish for Wings That Work is a Christmas parable featuring Breathed’s signature character, and his most charmingly human. Opus is a talking penguin, educated but emotionally vulnerable, insecure yet unfalteringly optimistic. His most fervent dream is that one day he might fly like a “real†bird.
As Christmas approaches his desperation and desolation grow, but he remains dolorously earthbound. But then on Christmas Eve Santa Claus has an accident…
Breathed’s first children’s book is still in many ways his most poignant and joyous. It’s an old fashioned Christmas miracle tale, beautifully painted, stuffed with wit and belly-laughs that will melt the hardest heart and it belongs on the bookshelf of every parent. When the family have almost ruined the holiday, this is what you want to restore your spirits. Kids might like it too…
© 1991 Berkeley Breathed. All Rights Reserved.