The Brothers Lionheart

Rating:
Summary: Best book for a bedtime story!
Review: My mother found bought the first US edition at a garage sale when she was in college, and it was my sister and I's favorite bedtime story growing up. Johnathan and Karl were the essential heroes of my childhood. The beautiful pen-and-ink illustrations of J.K. Lambert only enhance my understanding of Nangiyala, and I look forward to the day when I have my own children, so I can read this book to them.

Rating:
Summary: Brothers Lionheart
Review: One of the most wonderful books, I have read it several times even as an adult. I would like to give my friends children the opputunity the read this absolutely fantastic book. And since I can't lend my copy, it's in Swedish, I truly wish that it got printed again

Rating:
Summary: Back in print!
Review: Purple House Press is pleased to have released this wonderful classic in March 2004. With illustrations by Ilon Wikland. We also reissued Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren.

Rating:
Summary: Thumbs Down
Review: That's right, I give a big thumbs down to the publisher for letting this masterpiece of courage, fantasy and brotherly love go out of print. Some one somewhere along the line dropped the ball on this one, because I can think of few children's books that are more deserving of being available and being read than this one. This high caliber book sets an example of the love between brothers, their committment to one another, and the sacrifices and acts of courage they perform for one another which is without precedent. All of this, too, within the boundaries of a thrilling plot which is only confined by the reader's imagination. So, yes, I give a big thumbs down to the publisher who negligently failed in its efforts at promoting or marketing this wonderful, worthwhile story. The Brothers Lionheart has a place on the adolescent shelves of bookstores accross the world, and I hope that the publisher has sense enough to bring it back into circulation and put it back in its rightful place - the hands of all readers young and old who have ever wondered "What if..."

Rating:
Summary: Belongs to the canon of best books
Review: The first two chapters of this wonderful book were so overwhelmingly sad I almost choked while reading them aloud to my son. A mother's greatest fears come alive in these chapters and at some points I could not believe I was reading a children's book. While the rest of the story is a little less sad (at least on its apparent side) it works on our deepest fears, mainly loosing a loved one, being alone. These however are my observations as an adult. I am sure my son's perceptions are not similar at all and that as an adult I feel this book in a different level.
I enjoyed reading the other reviewers that describe their memory of reading this book as children. My experience was different, having read this book for the first time slowly, for several weeks, aloud to my son. My feelings are thus those of a grownup and maybe this makes this book even sadder to me (I do not want to plunge into the discussion of should children know how sad the world is - I have no good answer). In any case this is a marvelous adventure book for all ages whose power stems from many aspects. For me it was mainly the candid descriptions of the narrator, Scotty, who regards himself as a coward and who is moved to great acts of courage by his love to Jonathan, his beautiful, brave and kind brother. The love for Jonathan is really Scotty's driving force.
The book really belongs to the canon of best children books ever. On the first level this is an adventure book. The good: a beautiful hero, who always seems to know the right words, a fight for freedom, acts of bravery and self-sacrifice. The evil: a cruel leader, always finding new horrible ways of torture, demonic creatures, treachery and deceit. On the second level this fight for freedom is taking place in a mystical world-beyond who has another world-beyond, a notion that is both scary and comforting (there is always where to go but it seems the problems never end). On yet another level I felt the story works on our deepest fears: death, oppression, darkness, monsters, loneliness and separation from your loved ones which are really the most important aspect of life or of living. I am thinking to myself that maybe the message is that death is better if you stay with your loved ones? is this too horrible to think?
The reading therefore can be pleasing, emotional and thought provoking for different ages and is remembered a long while after the reading.
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Rating:
Summary: You Don't Know How Much You Need to Read This Book
Review: This story is, well, brillant. It's a saga of brotherly devotion, high adventure, scary places, and glorious times. It's through the looking glass, over the next mountain and around the corner to the place in time where you most want to be, with the people you love the best. It fills a space in your heart and leaves an ache at the same time. And it's good. You know those books that you can't BEAR to have end? The ones where you want just one more page? Well, move this to the top of the list - because the ending, while absolutely perfectly satisfying, leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what happened next. That's one (of a long list) why it's such a perfectly brillant children's book - your imagination takes it from there. This is not a story to read just once, but over and over, and to share with the people that you love the best.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorite books
Review: Written by Astrid Lindgren, author of the children's classic "Pippi Longstocking" books and winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, The Brothers Lionheart is an enchanting fable about two brothers. Big brother Jonathan tells his little brother Scotty's stories about Nangiyala, a land across the stars, where people go when they die. Scotty is sick and afraid he'll die, so he listens to stories of the wonderful adventures in Nangiyala, but he doesn't want to go without his brother, where they will both be the Brothers Lionheart. A powerful and emotional moving novel for readers of all ages.