By Bernardo Atxaga (author) , Mikel Valverde (illustrator)
"Winner of the Marsh Award for translation this Basque collection of short stories about the mischievous little white dog is delightful and often profound"
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Winner of the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation, awarded biennially since 1996, was founded to celebrate the best translation of a children’s book from a foreign language into English and published in the UK. It aims to spotlight the high quality and diversity of translated fiction for young readers.
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa.
Shola is surely one of the most irresistible characters in children’s books! The outside world sees a small, white dog but Shola thinks she is much more than that, nothing less than a highly cultivated creature, with the world at her feet. Her long-suffering companion (don’t ever call him her owner) Senor Grogo puts up with this very patiently, for the most part anyway: Shola’s refusal to admit to any mistake occasionally, and understandably, provokes an outburst!
The mismatch between Shola’s staunch self-belief and reality produce all sorts of comic situations in the four different stories contained in this volume. Everyone will have their favourite Shola moment – maybe when she decides she’s really a lion, or when she leads a pack of hunting dogs after wild boar in the mistaken belief that boar are just like sheep, only bigger.
Her delight in language entertains too, there’s nothing she likes more than using words like ‘obligation’ or ‘discombobulate’. Thoroughly charming, Shola deserves to be much better known.
Small dog. Big dreams. Shola is a little dog with attitude. Frustratingly for her, she loves both comfort (mainly in the form of food) and adventure (in theory, at least), and spends much of her time trying to decide between the two. Whether she is faced with the possibility that she may really be a lion or the prospect of a boar-hunt, with eccentric American visitors or insufferable country bumpkins, Shola is not afraid to pursue her dreams ...up to a point.
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Lovingly and revealingly illustrated by Mikel Valverde, these four stories in one volume are a treasure-trove of amusement which cannot fail to cheer the reader.
Shola is a charming, short creature stuffed with charisma and fierce ideas, and so is the book about her Bookbag
Charming, funny and heart-warming stories, beautifully packaged and affectionately and cleverly illustrated Lancashire Evening Post
First Spot, then Snowy and now Shola - children's literature has an illustrious history of plucky S-name canines... Mikel Valverde's illustrations are, like the best of cartoon strips, wittily and expressively detailed -- Fiona McKim Junior
The most clever and ridiculous dog you've ever heard of ... fantastic -- reader's review Guardian Children's Books
Fabulous... the illustrations are superb and humorous... the storyline is very engaging and will make you laugh your socks off and spread a grin on your face Guardian Kids Books
Translated from the Basque by Margaret Jull Costa and lavishly illustrated by Mikel Valverde, these gently ironic stories about another small dog whose aspirations regularly outrun her abilities are totally charming Independent
A short, sweet, and entertaining story... truly lovely illustrations and some wonderful wordplay-derived humour The Book Wars
A charming, witty, spirited collection of stories about the exploits of an irresistibly characterful little dog -- Daniel Hahn PEN Atlas
Bernardo Atxaga (Joseba Irazu Garmendia, b. 1951) is an award-winning Basque writer, whose work spans adult and children's prose, poetry, radio, cinema and theatre, as well as short stories. He first achieved national and international fame with Obabakoak (1988), which won the National Literature Prize 1989 and has been translated into more than twenty languages. His novels have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad; most recently, Margaret Jull Costa's translation of Seven Houses in France was shortlisted for the 2012 Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
the best books for 9-12 year olds
Small dog. Big dreams.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Adventures of Shola and determined it is suitable for children aged 7-10 years old
The Adventures of Shola features in the following genres: Featured Books for 9+ readers, Recommendations, Featured Books for 7+ readers
Hardback. Not Available.
The Adventures of Shola was written by Bernardo Atxaga and published by Pushkin Children's Books
The Adventures of Shola has 216 pages
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