Readers of Morpurgo's Waiting for Anya 1990 , which also featured an orphaned bear cub, may feel this novella is set in the same tiny, sheepherding village in the French Pyrenees. Roxanne, a sweet girl who sings like an angel, adopts a gentle abandoned cub that adores her. Years later, when a famous pop singer and his entourage arrive to make a music video based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin,'' Roxanne is given a starring role; she is soon charmed away to a life of fame and fortune, leaving her beloved bear behind. The morning after her departure, the bear is found dead, upright in his cage as if staring after Roxanne. This is an affecting story, certainly, but the bear's sudden death is melodramatic, and Roxanne is such a sympathetic character that her sudden neglect of home ties is scarcely credible. However, the Pied Piper theme is thoroughly developed, and the misty black- and-white drawings echo the pervasive melancholy of the text.
MORPURGO MICHAEL
Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo nacido como Michael Andrew Bridge; 5 de octubre de 1943 es un autor, poeta, dramaturgo y libretista inglés célebre por sus obras en el campo de la literatura infantil y juvenil. Se convirtió en el tercer laureado infantil, de 2003 a 2005, y actualmente es el presidente de BookTrust, la mayor organización benéfica de lectura infantil del Reino Unido. También ha recibido numerosos premios, entre los que habría que destacar el Whitbread 1995 , el Prix Sorcières 2001 o el Hampshire Book 2005 .
