Review:
Garibaldi's biscuits by Ralph Steadman
Andersen Press, 2008.
(Ages: 5+) A fun story with a light hearted take on Garibaldi's
ambition to reunite Italy. In Steadman's version Garibaldi's soldiers
have huge belt buckles made of pizza (handy if you're feeling peckish
on the battle field) and their bright red shirts do an excellent job of
concealing all the tomato sauce that they spill while consuming said
pizzas.
Steadman's illustrations complement the irreverent narrative
beautifully. It's the expressions on his soldiers' faces that I find
most accomplished. In one illustration the snoozing soldiers are being
roused for battle, and Steadman conveys perfectly their bemused and
disgruntled expressions.
The children I read this to were most amused by the demise of the pizza
belt buckles which, of course, resulted in the soldiers' pantaloons
falling down. The fact that the soldiers were fighting with water
filled balloons at the time added to the hilarity, and the picture of
Garibaldi's men, trousers round their ankles, waving brightly coloured
balloons at the Bourbons was a real highlight for my seven year olds.
Added to this is Steadman's fable of how Garibaldi and Bourbon biscuits
came into being, and if reading this aloud, it is essential to have a
packet of each handy to illustrate the finer points of the story. At
the back of the book is a nicely pitched explanation describing
something of the real Garibaldi, not to mention the origin of those
biscuits!
Claire Larson
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