Robert Wolfe

Joshua Joshua Tango

A classic children’s book from start to finish

Joshua can talk, he can fly and he’s telepathically gifted. He’s rather a decent singer too, and in spite of his age he can still tango with the best of them. But what really makes this all so exceptional is the fact that Joshua is a Brazilian tortoise.

For years, scientists have been trying to prove that his species, Geochelone elephantopus, is at least as clever as people, but as yet without success. Professor Groen takes a tortoise home with him so that he can continue his research by day and night. Unfortunately for him, however, the animal will only reveal his talents to Marcel, the scientist’s lonely son. Thanks to the magical tortoise, Marcel has the adventure of his life. And it’s just as well, as his mother’s away finding herself in India and he’s being teased at school, because, just like his father, he always has his head in the clouds.

The blurb makes it perfectly clear: Joshua Joshua Tango by the Dutch author Robert Wolfe (Sydney, 1967) wants to be every kind of children’s book at the same time. The story of Marcel’s Harry Potter-like broomstick experiences on the flying tortoise is only part of it. Joshua Joshua Tango is also a modern realistic book about the problems of a shaky one-parent family. And as though all that weren’t enough, Wolfe also weaves a football adventure through the book, along with a dignified asylum seeker who doesn’t want to return to his own country, a crazy next-door neighbour who is not as scary as he seems, and a kidnapping. Astonishingly enough, the story works. More than that: Wolfe’s captivating debut really is a most impressive achievement.

Maybe this is precisely because he’s been influenced by all these genres at the same time. His book contains so much glorious nonsense and familiar childhood sadness that it feels like a classic right from the first page. A little like Michael Ende’s The Never-ending Story: one issue has not been settled before the next one crops up, and so on, as though this cycle will never come to an end.

Thank goodness that Wolfe, like Ende, has the rare talent of combining the elements of his imagination in such a way that the story remains believable. Joshua Joshua Tango is one big wish come true. Anyone who reads it will dream of being able, like Marcel, to enter into the magical world of Joshua, where children can do anything. This is a feel-good book in the most positive sense of the word.

Publisher

De Harmonie
Herengracht 555
1017 BW Amsterdam
TEL. +31 20 624 51 81
FAX +31 20 623 06 72
E-mail: info@deharmonie.nl
Website: www.deharmonie.nl

Publishing details

Joshua Joshua Tango (2005, 285 pp)
Age: 8+