Ezra Elia Books

Wednesday, May 7th Two of them came today, dragged me out of my cage and put me in some kind of improvised maze made out of books and old toilet tubes. A labyrinth with no escape. They were treating it like some kind of game, laughing and squealing as I desperately scrabbled from blind alley to blind alley, but I knew it was no game. They're trying to crush my will, to grind me down. They can take my freedom, but they will never take my soul. My name is Edward, and I AM A HAMSTER. Published in memory of Poet, Thinker and noted rodent Edward the Hamster (1990-1990), this delightfully gothic hardback edition of his personal journals constitutes a celebration of his (very) short life. It's also very funny ('Eight months old today. Oh, the things I've seen. The Wheel. The Tray. The Ball. The Whe- no, I forget.'). Complete with illustrations of our hard-smoking existential hero, this is both a book for anyone who has loved and lost a beloved pet -- and a moving essay on the nature of suffering and the hamster condition.

In We Learn at Home , Miriam Elia's follow-up to last year's hit We Go to the Gallery , Mummy takes John and Susan out of their local school to be reeducated at home--though not before tagging the walls of St. James' Primary with the words "Fascist Scum." In order to introduce their young minds to a new, alternative worldview, Mummy will ground all learning in a feelings-based outlook, free of any actual facts or skills, and reevaluate core subjects such as mathematics, religion, philosophy and art. John and Susan burn the Union Jack, debate and learn to paint their inner children. Key vocabulary for young readers includes terms such as "Marx" and "Buddha." Pocket-sized, printed in bold colors and written in clear, simple English, the Dung Beetle Learning series pays tribute to and skewers the much-loved British Ladybird early learning children's books of the 1960s, with our child protagonists learning about contemporary art and politics rather than helping their parents around the house. In We Go to the Gallery , Susan found that the decay of Western civilization smells like rubbish, John learned that some toys are only for venture capitalists and the siblings discovered that God is dead. What new lessons will Mummy teach?

In We Go Out , Mummy takes Susan and John out for an exciting day trip in London as part of their new reeducation program. Looking, thinking and reevaluating the world around them is a crucial part of any child's core development, and John and Susan are no exception. A simple stroll down the local high street is magically illuminated by Mummy's insights into the nature of society, religion, art and the various other forms of hierarchal or patriarchal oppression. In this volume, John and Susan--and their readers following along at home--learn about gender, homelessness, public sculpture, luxury redevelopments and property values, among many other valuable life lessons for today. Impeccably dressed and well behaved, Mummy and her children have been ripped from their comfortable middle-class midcentury environment and deposited into the contemporary world, still speaking in the polite vocabulary that characterized the popular Ladybird series. The caricature is so pitch-perfect that the 2014 limited edition of We Go to the Gallery was threatened with a lawsuit by Penguin UK (owners of the Ladybird imprint), which was withdrawn following a change in UK copyright law allowing for parody and satire.

In book 1d of the Dung Beetle Learning series, Mummy, John and Susan are taken on a thrilling Christmas adventure. By interrogating Santa Claus and exposing his 'vicious programme of indoctrination,' Mummy proceeds to strip Christmas of all its magic and meaning, for the benefit of mankind. Originally based on the Private Eye Christmas special, this book will joyfully ruin the Yuletide festival period for children and adults alike.

Montag. Mein Name ist Edward, und ich bin ein Hamster. Dienstag. Heute kam der Tierarzt. Er hat mich angefasst. Offenbar bin ich eine Frau. Mittwoch. Doch keine Frau. Ich habe nachgesehen. Donnerstag. Habe heute beschlossen, das Rad nicht mehr zu benutzen. Freitag. Sie können mir die Freiheit nehmen, aber niemals die Seele … In seinem erschütternden Tagebuch beschreibt Edward sein Dasein zwischen Käfigstäben und Futternapf – wie er plötzlich dem Hamsterrad entkommt und sich auf das Abenteuer Leben einlässt … Ein Ereignis!

"Wir feiern schon wieder Weihnachten" begleitet Mutti, John und Susan auf einem humorvollen Weihnachtsabenteuer, in dem der Weihnachtsmann den Zauber des Festes zeigt. Mutti hinterfragt die Traditionen und fördert Bildung und kritisches Denken. Ein amüsantes Buch, das die Weihnachtszeit für Jung und Alt auflockert.