Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers who sometimes get a little bit frustrated when things don't go their way, this book teaches them that it's okay to try, try, try again. Based on one of the top-rated and most-popular Gabba songs "It's Okay, Try Again."
Extravagant, absurd, and self-aware, The Revolutionaries Try Again plays out against the lost decade of Ecuador's austerity and the stymied idealism of three childhood friends—an expat, a bureaucrat, and a playwright—who are as sure about the evils of dictatorship as they are unsure of everything else, including each other. Everyone thinks they're the chosen ones, Masha wrote on Antonio's manuscript. See About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson. Then she quoted from Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, because she was sure Antonio hadn't read her yet: Can a man really be held accountable for his own actions? His behavior, even his character, is always in the merciless grip of the age, which squeezes out of him the drop of good or evil that it needs from him. In San Francisco, besides the accumulation of wealth, what does the age ask of your so called protagonist? No wonder he never returns to Ecuador. Mauro Javier Cardenas grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and graduated with a degree in Economics from Stanford University. Excerpts from his first novel, The Revolutionaries Try Again, have appeared in Conjunctions, the Antioch Review, Guernica, Witness, and BOMB. His interviews and essays on/with László Krasznahorkai, Javier Marias, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Juan Villoro, and Antonio Lobo Antunes have appeared in Music & Literature, San Francisco Chronicle, BOMB, and the Quarterly Conversation.
This poignant story is written for a wide range of readers, young adults and parents, as forgiveness of others and self is seen in its proper perspective of personal development. This lesson book delves into the very real problems facing children as they often try to make themselves feel superior by picking on those around them who are different and perceived to be easy targets. See the cruelty as well as the opportunities for second chances and forgiveness through the eyes of those in a very problematic time in their lives, the middle-school years. The family and how they act and react to adolescent bullying is woven throughout this young adult fictional novel that explores an age-old problem that is met head-on by the resolve of friendship, family unity, and especially self-realization. The importance of knowing when you have wronged another and that you are worthy of forgiving yourself are shown in the book's twenty-three short chapters as young adults learn to pick themselves up and try again. The problem of carrying hatred, which only hurts the person shouldering the burden, and the struggles to do the right thing weigh heavily on the typical students of Deergrove School. Accomplishments in the areas of academic and athletic skills are vehicles that help steer students along the road to personal growth and self-acceptance.