In un panorama sempre più internazionale, sapersi destreggiare fra lingue diverse da quella madre è indispensabile per restare al passo con le esigenze dei nostri tempi. Se da lettori uniamo l’utile al dilettevole attraverso la lettura di libri in lingua originale, apriamo anche la porta a migliaia di opere mai importate nel nostro Paese. Che ne dite di consacrare qualche articolo alle segnalazioni di questi libri?
The Keepers Trilogy
La Trilogia dei guardiani, serie fantasy e d’avventura per ragazzi, non è mai stata italianizzata, e a sei anni dalla pubblicazione dell’ultimo volume ho perso la speranza che mai lo sarà. Ma questo non vieta di gustarsi l’opera con le parole scelte dalla sua autrice, l’australiana Lian Tanner. Diamo un’occhiata ai tre libri di cui si compone.
Titolo: Museum of Thieves (Il museo dei ladri)
Autore: Lian Tanner
Casa editrice: Allen & Unwin (Australia)
Pagine: 252
Welcome to the tyrannical city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime.
Goldie Roth has lived in Jewel all her life. Like every child in the city, she wears a silver guardchain and is forced to obey the dreaded Blessed Guardians. She has never done anything by herself and won’t be allowed out on the streets unchained until Separation Day.
When Separation Day is canceled, Goldie, who has always been both impatient and bold, runs away, risking not only her own life but also the lives of those she has left behind. In the chaos that follows, she is lured to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets the boy Toadspit and discovers terrible secrets. Only the cunning mind of a thief can understand the museum’s strange, shifting rooms. Fortunately, Goldie has a talent for thieving.
Which is just as well, because the leader of the Blessed Guardians has his own plans for the museum—plans that threaten the lives of everyone Goldie loves. And it will take a daring thief to stop him…
Museum of Thieves is a thrilling tale of destiny and danger, and of a courageous girl who has never been allowed to grow up—until now.
Titolo: City of Lies (La città delle bugie)
Autore: Lian Tanner
Casa editrice: Allen & Unwin (Australia)
Pagine: 320
Goldie Roth is a trained thief and a skilled liar. Along with her friend Toadspit, she’s supposed to be one of the Keepers of the mysterious Museum of Dunt. But although she desperately wants to be a Keeper, she will not leave her sick parents to do so.
But when Toadspit’s sister Bonnie is stolen, he and Goldie are forced to follow the child-stealers to the neighboring city of Spoke. Along the way, Toadspit too is captured, and Goldie is caught up in the Festival of Lies, where every word she says means something else and no one can be trusted. There, Goldie discovers some dangerous secrets—secrets that the child-stealers will kill to protect. She will need all her skills as a thief and a liar if she is to survive and save her friends.
Il mio preferito dei tre.
Titolo: Path of Beasts (Il Sentiero delle Belve)
Autore: Lian Tanner
Casa editrice: Allen & Unwin (Australia)
Pagine: 358
“A shiver of loathing ran through Goldie. It was more than six months since the Blessed Guardians had been banished from the city. But now here they were, back again!”
The city of The city of Jewel is in peril once again, as it is held captive by the frightful Fugleman, his band of Blessed Guardians, and an army of merciless mercenaries. Goldie and Toadspit are determined to free their city, but how can they fight such overwhelming forces? Their unlikely allies include a dozen white mice, the bloodthirsty spirit of a warrior princess, and a cat and a brizzlehound who are mortal enemies.
The ensuing war will set thieves against soldiers and trickery against Frow Carrion, a monstrous cannon with a mind of its own. The Fugleman will stop at nothing to defeat Goldie and her friends. And as Jewel and its people are dragged to the brink of destruction, Goldie will face her most difficult task yet: while Toadspit fights a duel to the death, she must walk the mysterious Beast Road, a secret path so perilous that no one has ever returned from it.
Will Toadspit survive the duel? Will Goldie survive the Beast Road?
Perché consiglio questa serie?
Perché, innanzitutto, è scritta favolosamente bene. E perché educa e intrattiene, come la migliore letteratura per ragazzi, e riserva lezioni anche a fasce d’età più mature. È un inno all’indipendenza, alla crescita personale, al libero arbitrio e alla presa in carico delle proprie responsabilità.
A chi la consiglio?
A chi ha ottenuto almeno un livello B1+ di conoscenza della lingua inglese. È pur vero che di letteratura per ragazzi si tratta, ma Lian Tanner è una veterana della scrittura e sa come maneggiare una penna. Chi si ferma ai livelli base si ritroverà a dover aprire il dizionario troppo spesso per trarre dalla lettura qualsiasi godimento.
Nota: la foto in copertina riporta le copertine dell’edizione originale australiana. In seguito, la trilogia è sbarcata anche negli Stati Uniti, dove è stata pubblicata in una nuova veste artistica con le tre copertine di cui sopra. Qual è la vostra preferita?
La lepisma libraia