Product Description

A Martian's concern for a frightened bird shows three space explorers from America, Russia, and China that just because two creatures look different doesn't mean they have to be enemies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1024532 in Books
• Published on: 1989-03-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 40 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, Italian (translation)

About the Author
Umberto Eco (born 5 January 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. His 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum has been described as a "thinking person's Da Vinci Code". Eco is President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, University of Bologna. He has also written academic texts, children’s books and many essays. Eco was born in the city of Alessandria in the region of Piedmont. His father, Giulio, was an accountant before the government called upon him to serve in three wars. During World War II, Umberto and his mother, Giovanna, moved to a small village in the Piedmontese mountainside. Eco received a Salesian education, and he has made references to the order and its founder in his works and interviews. His family name is supposedly an acronym of ex caelis oblatus (Latin: a gift from the heavens), which was given to his grandfather (a foundling) by a city official. His father was the son of a family with thirteen children, and urged Umberto to become a lawyer, but he entered the University of Turin in order to take up medieval philosophy and literature, writing his thesis on Thomas Aquinas and earning his BA in philosophy in 1954. During this time, Eco left the Roman Catholic Church after a crisis of faith. After this, Eco worked as a cultural editor for the state broadcasting station Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) and also lectured at the University of Turin (1956–64). A group of avant-garde artists—painters, musicians, writers—whom he had befriended at RAI (Gruppo 63) became an important and influential component in Eco's future writing career. This was especially true after the publication of his first book in 1956, Il problema estetico di San Tommaso, which was an extension of his doctoral thesis. This also marked the beginning of his lecturing career at his alma mater. In September 1962, he married Renate Ramge, a German art teacher with whom he has a son and a daughter. He divides his time between an apartment in Milan and a vacation house near Rimini.

William Weaver is a contributor for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt with titles including: Baudolina.

A self-described "image-maker," Eugenio Carmi was born in Genoa in 1920 and trained in Turin. His long experience as a graphic artist was of fundamental influence for his artistic activity, which is based on a rigorous geometrical structure and a careful analysis of color values. Carmi has exhibited all over Europe and North America and is well-known for his illustrations completed for several books by Umberto Eco.

Customer Reviews

This man could write for monkeys if he had a mind to it.....
Having been a staunch Eco fan for quite some time, I stumbled across this book and its companion, "The Bomb and the General" quite by accident in a book search. Of course, I purchased both books, ostensibly for my two children, but secretly they were for me. I would give this book a higher rating if I was reviewing it solely for an adult audience.

The collage artwork is charming, and the text has the universality of a fable. However Eco never indulges in sentimentality when dealing with the serious subject matter of human intolerance and the need for a global consciousness (heavy stuff!) Children will enjoy the tale - perhaps the illustrations are not glitzy enough for today's market, but their simplicity enhances the mythic quality of the writing.

Hopefully, this book will trigger some indepth discussion between children and their carers about human nature. An excellent eco-friendly book for ALL the family!

The Three Astronauts
We purchased this book for our son whose reading material is at the 4 to 8 yrs level.

This is a picture book & the story is about three astronauts (one from USA, one from China & one from Russia) who find themselves together in a situation where they learn to overlook their differences & learn to work together.

Our only disappointment with this book is the symbolic representations (illustrations) used to depict the three astronauts. Our son was expecting to see the astronauts depicted as people. The astronauts are represented by three pieces of paper - the American is a piece of chewing gum paper, the Russian & Chinese are represented by pieces of paper with Russian & Chinese script. While I can see merit in the concept, I really do think this level of comprehension is beyound that of a child.