he said to the sheep.
"Yes," said the sheep.
"I suppose I am."
Feeling satisfied,
Fausto walked on.
Next, Fausto came upon
a tree and declared,
"Tree, you are mine."
In this painted fable, Oliver Jeffers provides a story for our times. Fausto is an ambitious and pompous man who believes he is the rightful owner of everything he sees in nature. No flower, tree, or animal is free from his demanding presence. Each proves agreeable to his statement of claim. Fausto moves on, always claiming more and more objects as his own.
With each response to his declarations, Fausto moves on to bigger and better places.
"When he reached a mountain,
Fausto said in a clear voice,
"Mountain, you are mine!"
"No," said the mountain.
"I am my own."
Fausto is infuriated and is quick to show his ire. The mountain succumbs to Fausto's pressure. That only gives Fausto more power; he moves on to the sea. Nothing is ever enough to satisfy his greed. The sea proves his undoing ... and all can return to what they were before meeting Fausto and learning of his fate.
The mood in Fausto's story is portrayed in browns and blues that evoke a bleak and distressing world. Is this book a treatise on greed, a fable for the times in which we are living, or a cautionary story concerning our treatment of the natural world? Oliver Jeffers knows. Readers will have their own thoughts.
Exceptional!
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