Customer Reviews

Don Quixote and the Windmills

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I feel about Don Quixote the way I feel about Gulliver - children need to know the story to relate to the metaphors like "tilting at windmills" or "lilliputian"... but they don't need to get bogged down reading the whole story. We read Cervantes's book during my junior year of high school, and really - all you need is this retelling by Eric A. Kimmel. Leonard Everett Fisher's illustrations put you right up close in the action.

And of course, the thrill of living a purposeful life, and the dissatisfaction with ordinary life: those are human universals.

Your kids will love it. Read it to them. You can laugh together.

Don't skip the author's note at the back - details of Cervantes' life. I didn't know he had been captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Algiers. Did you?


(Our favorite picture book retelling of Gulliver's Travels is by Margaret Hodges, "Gulliver in Lilliput")

If your children really love this story, try the illustrated book "The Knight and the Squire" by Argentina Palacios -- it gives more of the novel and is great for older children.

Bought this as a present for a knight-loving child who loves the book, the drawings are very well done and are very interesting to look at...

A much sought after illustrator and writer Leonard Everett Fisher gives vivid life to this classic tale. The producer of over 200 children's books, his bold full-color pictures are unforgettable images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

This hallmark of Spanish literature by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was written in 1605 and published to great acclaim. Obviously, it has endured for centuries and will for centuries to come.

As most know, it is a tale of a rather ordinary fellow who has immersed himself in so much literature about knighthood that he believes he can be a knight. The story has become a much heralded Broadway musical, and the stuff of which dreams are made.

Sancho Panza, a neighboring farmer, is the rotund companion chosen by Don Quixote. He, too, has become very much a part of our culture as a faithful follower.

Kimmel, speaking for Don Quixote closes this version of his story with "Our names and the stories of our matchless deeds will resound through the ages." And they have.

- Gail Cooke

I love how Kimmel introduces young children to one of the greatest novels written and to Spanish literature. My four-year-olds were enthralled with the story and enjoyed learning new vocabulary, hearing Spanish names, and practicing their "woeful expressions."

Don Quixote and the Windmills
These books were in great condition and came in a pretty fast time. I was very pleased with the service.

I really love the pictures and the story. I think it gives children a little taste of who Don Quixote was.