Asterix and the Great Divide was published in 1980 and was written and illustrated by Albert Uderzo.
There is a village that has some problems because it has two chiefs (Cleverdix and Majestix) and a very deep ditch dug through the middle. They both accuse each other of various things and the villagers on both sides hate each other.
But the son of Chief Cleverdix and the daughter of Chief Majestix are in love.
Then, add the evil Codfix to the story, a fishy looking character, who has plans to take over the village and be married to Chief Majestix’s daughter. This is how the story begins.
Codfix is an evil character and wants to get the romans involved. When Chief Cleverdix hears about this he decides to ask Chief Vitalstatisix for help, since they fought in Gergovia together. Asterix, Obelix and the druid Getafix make their way to the “greatly divided” village and sort things out.
I read this story when I was child and enjoyed it back then. It’s actually not a bad story overall since the structure is quite concise but there is something plain about it. Every scene seems to transition well from one to another (nothing too long or short).
This story has a love story and the two characters are cookie cutter characters. Just imagine an Errol Flynn type of character without any sense of humor and that’s what the son of Chief Cleverdix is like. His looks kind of have an early 80’s feel to it...
There seems to be an overkill of puns in Asterix and the Great Divide if you like that kind of humor.
The ending turns a bit ridiculous with the final battle with the romans but things have to come to an end...
I’m not sure what children can get out of this book since it's is on the plain side with morals... it’s not good to fight with your neighbors. That’s all I can think of at the moment.
