Title: The Three Astronauts
Author: Umberto Eco
Illustrator: Eugenio Carmi
Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books; 1sted edition (March 10, 1989)
ISBN: 0152863834
Themes: Unity, diversity, peace, differences, racism, seeing people differently…
One of two children’s books that Umberto Eco wrote in 1996, (The other was titled “The Bomb and the General”) The Three Astronauts tells a story of three astronauts from different countries (USA, Russia and China) that all take off from earth and land on Mars at the same time.
The story is about how three people learn to look beyond their differences so that they can survive on the new planet. The three astronauts meet an native from Mars and automatically want to kill it, together they create a big gun because they are afraid. But they see the alien help a native bird that had fallen to the ground, they see it cry and suddenly they are able to see beyond the ugliness and the different-ness of the alien.
The collage artwork is highly symbolic and plays with our imaginations, stunningly done by Euginio Carmi Umberto Eco turns the worlds troubles of the time on their head, letting us see it through a child’s eye.
”The visitors realised that on Earth, and on other planets too, each one has his ways, and it’s simply a matter of reaching an understanding.”
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