Children's Books2014 · 104 pp · Age 9+
THE ZAPATA BROTHERS
Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen
Cat brothers Blackboot (a staunch outdoor cat) and Whitetache (a staunch indoor cat) lose their provider one day and have to venture out into the world to fend for themselves. They have a strenuous journey full of sorrow, love, friendship, corruption and music ahead of them.
Brødrene Zapata is an unparalleled picture book. A revolutionary and educational journey through a dangerous yet alluring Mexican desert landscape.
‘Playful, cheery and wonderful [...] It is like a dramatic song of destiny, a kind of polyphonic fado about the struggle for existence. [...] The story is witty with a lot of rhyming and wordplay. But the book is also a loving salute to Mexican national hero Zapata, to revolutionary singers of the past and to people living under violent regimes. [...] Rebolledo Pedersen and Brøgger are two storytellers who work exceptionally well together. [...] Brødrene Zapata is a brilliant mix of nonsense and seriousness. A lively tale of life and death.’DAGBLADET
‘The text is written in rhyme with lines interspersed across illustrated spreads. [...] Around these, illustrator Lilian Brøgger has really been allowed free reign with her expressive felt tip drawings. She zooms in and out, from intrusive close-ups to small details. [...] In important places in the book, the black cat White Tache needs to relate to important human problems. The poetry is beautiful when he tries to understand his brother’s death, and the final moral when he sums up his own destiny is very powerful...’BARNEBOKKRITIKK.NO
‘Brødrene Zapata is an unusually successful collaboration between the poet Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen and the equally talented illustrator Lilian Brøgger […] a wonderful and well thought out book, almost like a thick comic strip novel. […] This is a profound psychological tale of loss, doubt, sacrifice and faith that most of us will recognise. […] An unbelievable arsenal of imaginative animals and people that are very aptly caricatured. […] Lilian’s ability to create credible scenes is astonishing. That is why she also allows herself to create gruesome scenes. They are a necessity of the story itself […] Torgeir’s text is clever, funny and sometimes quite raw.’Numer 1/2015
