I was sad to hear of the death of the Belgian author and illustrator Mario Ramos, we are currently enjoying ‘I Am So Strong’, one of his books that we have on loan from the library. My daughter borrowed it as she is fascinated by wolves, especially wolves in fairytales, and this story also includes several fairytale characters. We find the wolf too funny to be scary, even at his scariest he is portrayed humorously and the underlying message in the story is that pride comes before a fall. I like the bold, simple pictures, some pages literally just have the characters on a white background. The story is written mostly in conversation which gives lots of scope for theatrically, funny voices!
The Story: Mr Wolf goes for a walk in the woods and asks a variety of animals and fairytale characters who is the strongest in the land. As they all tell him that he is the strongest he gets more and more bigheaded until he meets a tiny dragon. When the dragon tells him that his mum is the strongest the wolf gets very angry and calls him names. Then he meets the tiny dragon’s mother and is firmly put in his place!
A great story with a humorous twist for anybody who loves fairytales.
I wrote this recommendation using the German translation of ‘I am So Strong’. Mario Ramos also wrote ‘I Am So Handsome’ which we haven’t read.
Age Range: 3 +
Author / Illustrator: Mario Ramos
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