Laika (review)
2007; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 61; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2007.0642
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Space exploration and regulation
ResumoReviewed by: Laika Elizabeth Bush Abadzis, Nick Laika; written and illus. by Nick Abadzis. First Second/Roaring Brook, 2007205p Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-59643-101-0$17.95 Ad Gr. 6-10 Immediately following the collective international gasp that greeted Sputnik I in 1957, Premier Khrushchev gave Sergei Korolev and his design team approximately one month to outdo their triumph just in time for the fortieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Sputnik II would send a live passenger into orbit, but due to time constraints, the designers were unable to devise a reentry system, and the canine cosmonaut was doomed to die in space. Here Abadzis reconstructs the planning, politicking, and flight, following activities of the dog handler, the trainer, the chief designer, and the dog who came to be called Laika (barker). At its best, and particularly when contextualizing the ambitions of the Russian space program that dropped the temperature on the Cold War, this exemplifies how imaginatively and engagingly the graphic-novel format can deliver information. However, in his well-intentioned effort to support team member Oleg Gazenko's conclusion [End Page 70] that "we did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog," Abadzis spins a hanky-wringer of a backstory for Laika, tracing an imagined life of neglect, abuse, and dashed hopes that would make the stray dog anxious to please its trainers and willing to undergo any discomfort in experimentation to gain their approbation, and thus elevates the callousness of the program to villainous treachery. Ultimately this authorial decision is as unnecessary as it is emotionally manipulative, since almost any reader with a beating heart will sympathize with Laika merely by observing her training ordeal, the affection of her handlers, and her sad destiny. Space enthusiasts will nonetheless appreciate how much of the drama unfolds not only in dialogue bubbles but in the meticulous visual detail within wordless frames that captures the complex emotional responses of human participants pressured to sacrifice a dog they've come to treasure. A bibliography leads readers to up-to-date materials for further research. Copyright © 2007 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Referência(s)