There is exactly the same robe here, but with mother-of-pearl buttons. And exactly the same horse, but without wings. And exactly the same landmine, just smaller, but different. You will find absolutely everything in the grasshopper's shop:
- A ceremonial speech
- A cake that never ends
- A small flood
- A little bit of shamelessness
- Silver eyelashes
- An extra day of life
- New punctuation marks
- A disinclination to climb trees
In short, EVERYTHING! That’s how strange this shop is, and the book about it is strange too.
"The Grasshopper's Happiness" is not a philosophical tale about the world of ideas and the world of things. Nor is it a psychological story about happiness. And it's not a fairy tale about animals. No subtexts whatsoever.
There isn't really a plot either: each chapter is a new character coming to the shop who wants to buy something unusual from the grasshopper, and it’s bound to be in stock. The reader can only compete with the author in inventiveness and imagine what the next buyer might ask for. In its fragmentariness and unpredictability, the book reminded me of the cartoon "Plasticine Crow": what, I wonder, awaits us on the next page/in the next frame? It's impossible to guess, one can only admire the flight of imagination!
Oh! Well, you can also dream about what you yourself would order in such a shop... And what is quite important, admire the illustrations by Igor Oleynikov.
The postmodern "The Grasshopper's Happiness" by Dutch writer Toon Tellegen is for readers aged 7-12 who know what's what...
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