Review of The Little Barbarian by Renato Moriconi

Authors

Cory L. Brookins, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Publisher

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

City

Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States of America

Date of Publication

2018

ISBN

9780802855091

Date of Review

2019

Disciplines

Library and Information Science | Modern Literature

Keywords

Children's literature, reviews

Review

The story follows a man who appears to be a Viking riding a horse through dangers of all kinds. He encounters a massive scorpion, a pit of snakes, man eating plants, cyclops, and more. All of these threats, he handles without batting an eye or lifting a finger until the very end when two arms appear from the sky and swoop to grab him. The reader finds out that the barbarian wasn’t a warrior of old, he is a little boy taking an imaginative ride on a carousel! The pictures before showed the warrior and horse alternatively at the top or bottom of the page, marking the ups and downs of the carousel horse.

This book does not have a great moral or lesson for children to learn at the end. It is simply an adventure, a trip through imagination. Told without words, the pictures display the monsters stories of old promise children, such as a fire breathing bird or sea monster. Every kid, despite having not read Homer or Beowulf, pictures themselves to be a hero in a grand epic and this book perfectly captures that spirit. The book is intended for smaller children, but it plays to them well. Because there are no words, any adult reading this book to a child has more freedom to make the story interactive, really bringing it to life for a child. Recommend. Cory Brookins, Centennial Library Intern, Cedarville University

Recommended Citation

Brookins, Cory L., "Review of The Little Barbarian by Renato Moriconi" (2019). Library Intern Book Reviews. 264.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/264

Files