The Wildcat Behind Glass

February 26, 2024
On the 50th anniversary of the original publication, Emmerich (Good Will Come from the Sea, for adults) offers an approachable translation of this 1936–set historical novel by Zei (Tina’s Web), which takes place on a small Greek island as authoritarianism overtakes the country. Second grader Melia narrates in innocuous first person, chronicling her close relationship with older sister Myrto and their homeschooling by their grandfather, whom islanders call “the Wise Man” and who can recite Homer by heart, and shares myths about his old Greek books, which he calls his “ancients.” Intertwined throughout are elaborate tales of a stuffed wildcat who sends Melia secret messages from behind the window of their great-aunt Despina’s house. As the sisters chafe against “boring Sundays” and their father’s strict rules, and look forward to their summers of freedom, increasingly tense but seemingly far-off politics on the mainland become personal when their idealistic cousin Nikos must flee persecution. Things worsen when Myrto begins reporting on her own family. Via Melia’s recounting of her experiences, Zei presents a child’s viewpoint into life under creeping dictatorship. A beginning “Note for Curious Readers” places the narrative in context, including defining fascism and explaining Greek philosophers such as Plato. Ages 9–12.

March 15, 2024
A fresh translation of an acclaimed 1963 novel about the rise of fascism in pre-World War II Greece. Zei's tale sensitively chronicles both rising political tensions and general patterns of life on a Greek island in the mid-1930s, when the country was under the dictatorship of Gen. Ioannis Metaxas, as seen through the eyes of 7-year-old Melia. The plot begins with summer idylls in a fishing village and stories about the stuffed wildcat in Aunt Despina's parlor and goes on to include book burnings, searches and seizures by constables, and a wild emotional meltdown when Myrto, Melia's na�ve big sister, learns that the phalanx of "our dictator's youth organization" that she proudly joined at school is just a gang of miscreants. There's something genuinely childlike about the way Melia goes from initially caring far more about the pleasures of rambling along the rocky shoreline with friends than the half-heard conversations of worried grown-ups to a sharp awareness of the growing, pervasive tensions in her world and its ideological causes. Her journey invites modern young readers to see potential parallels in their own times. The book's original U.S. release won a Mildred L. Batchelder Award for its publisher in 1970; this edition, translated by a Princeton University professor of comparative literature, invites readers in through its conversational tone and vivid details. At once evocative of times past and more cogent than ever. (translator's note) (Historical fiction. 8-13)

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July 1, 2024
A chapter book, first published in 1963, by the author of the wonderful Petros' War (winner of the 1974 Batchelder Award) is back in a new translation for contemporary readers. In 1936, almost-eight-year-old Melia is living an idyllic life on a small island when the Greek government is overthrown by a fascist dictator. Her favorite cousin must go into hiding; her older sister is brainwashed into spying on her own family; her scholar grandfather's books are burned. Zei beautifully captures -- and balances -- the realities of the political landscape; the children's adventures, both everyday and clandestine; and specifics of island life (food, activities, play, schooling); along with narrator Melia's rich interior life and appealing personality. Martha V. Parravano

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
A chapter book, first published in 1963, by the author of the wonderful Petros' War (winner of the 1974 Batchelder Award) is back in a new translation for contemporary readers. In 1936, almost-eight-year-old Melia is living an idyllic life on a small island when the Greek government is overthrown by a fascist dictator. Her favorite cousin must go into hiding; her older sister is brainwashed into spying on her own family; her scholar grandfather's books are burned. Zei beautifully captures -- and balances -- the realities of the political landscape; the children's adventures, both everyday and clandestine; and specifics of island life (food, activities, play, schooling); along with narrator Melia's rich interior life and appealing personality.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)