{"id":31188,"date":"2024-12-24T09:02:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T09:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31188"},"modified":"2024-12-24T13:55:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T13:55:47","slug":"a-wish-for-wings-that-work-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/12\/24\/a-wish-for-wings-that-work-3\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wish for Wings That Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Berkeley Breathed<\/strong> (Little, Brown & Co.)
\nISBN: 978-0-31610-758-7 (HB) 978-0-31610 691-7 (PB)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Bird of Absolutely Good Omen\u2026 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

For most of the 1980s and early 1990s Berke Breathed dominated the American newspaper comic strip scene with his astoundingly funny surreal political fantasy strip Bloom County<\/strong> – and latterly its spin-off Outland<\/strong> (both fully still available digitally – so don\u2019t wait for my reviews, just get them now and spend a great holiday season prepping for the next four years!).<\/p>\n

At the top of his game Breathed retired from strip cartooning and began to create a series of lavish children\u2019s fantasy picture books – like Red Ranger Came Calling<\/strong> and Mars Needs Moms!<\/strong> – that rank among the best America has ever produced. That first foray into the field was A Wish for Wings That Work<\/strong>: a Christmas parable featuring Breathed\u2019s signature character, and his most charmingly human. It was adapted into an animated feature film, and that\u2019s worth tracking down too\u2026<\/p>\n

Opus<\/em> is a talking penguin, reasonably educated (for America), archaically erudite yet ultimately emotionally vulnerable, insecure yet unfalteringly optimistic. His most fervent dream is that one day he might fly like a \u201creal\u201d bird\u2026<\/p>\n

As Christmas approaches his desperation and desolation grow, but he remains dolorously earthbound. And then on December 24th<\/sup> Santa Claus<\/em> has a little accident\u2026<\/p>\n

Breathed\u2019s first children\u2019s book is still in many ways his most poignant and joyous. It\u2019s an old-fashioned Christmas miracle tale, laconically told and beautifully painted; stuffed with dry wit and uproarious belly-laughs to melt the hardest heart. It belongs on the bookshelf of every parent, spiritual or rationalist.<\/p>\n

When the family have almost ruined the holiday, or if you find yourself somewhere other than where you\u2019d want or expect to be, this is what you want to restore your spirits. Kids might like it too\u2026
\n\u00a9 1991, 1995 Berkeley Breathed. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Berkeley Breathed (Little, Brown & Co.) ISBN: 978-0-31610-758-7 (HB) 978-0-31610 691-7 (PB) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Bird of Absolutely Good Omen\u2026 10\/10 For most of the 1980s and early 1990s Berke Breathed dominated the American newspaper comic strip scene with his astoundingly funny surreal political fantasy strip Bloom County – and latterly its spin-off … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Wish for Wings That Work”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[97,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids-all-ages","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-872","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31190,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31188\/revisions\/31190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}