35 kilos of hope

35 kilos of hope (French original title: 35 kilos d'espoir ) is the first youth novel by the French bestselling author and journalist Anna Gavalda (born December 9, 1970 in Boulogne-Billancourt), which was nominated in 2005 for the German Youth Literature Prize. The original edition was first published in 2002 by Bayard Jeunesse in Paris. In 2004 the German translation by Ursula Schregel was published by Bloomsbury Verlag. The author tells the story of little Grégoire Dubosc, who is labeled a failure in school. Only by doing handicrafts and handicrafts does he manage to escape the unpopular everyday school life.

content

David Dubosc (that's the name of “Grégoire” in the German edition of the book for young people) is 13 - and is in the 6th grade. He has stayed seated twice, once in the 3rd and now in the 6th grade. David is not interested in school at all, since he was a small child he has been much more interested in his grandfather Léon's shed, tinkering and building with him on all kinds of things, developing practical inventions such as a banana peeling machine or an apparatus that allows his mother to iron made possible while sitting. Because he was uncomfortably noticed as a class clown in physical education several times, had to detain so often that the report book had no free pages, David was thrown from school. So it wasn't enough that his parents were constantly nagging and arguing about his bad grades, no, it has now come to the point that no school in the area wants to accept David as a student. Even grandfather Léon seems to have given up all understanding of his beloved grandson. Finally, David comes to a school in the district, but the interaction there is anything but conducive to learning: even months after school started, David has never seen the French teacher, his classmates smoke their joints in front of the shopping center after school. Ultimately, David's parents decide to send him to boarding school and grandfather Léon confesses to David that it was he who gave his parents the idea: David should see something else, be himself, become happy. But the search for a boarding school turns out to be just as difficult as the search for a suitable school beforehand. David himself would have chosen a boarding school: the Grandchamps School, a technical high school. The problem, however, is that David's testimony is far too bad for the headmistress to accept. Léon manages to encourage his grandson and so David writes a personal and very individual letter to the director of the boarding school, whereupon he is actually invited to a test. He almost gives up on the test, but when he hears the voice of his sick grandfather, who is lying in a clinic, he can solve almost all of the tasks and passes the test. David was accepted at the school he wanted and from then on he was extremely motivated. He walks a lot, tries hard, gathers his strength in order to send it to his seriously ill grandfather via thought transmission. When he learns that his grandfather is in a coma, a world collapses for David and he falls back into old patterns. Until one day one of the older students wakes him up and asks if he is Toto. Toto, that was the nickname Grandpa Léon used to say to David. David walks in front of the house and there he is: his grandfather in a wheelchair, a carer at his side. He wanted to see his Toto again and David should do his fly. David laughs.

Narrative technique

In the language of the schoolchildren, the protagonist tells in first person form about his feelings, experiences, fears and doubts. Numerous self-talks serve to illustrate his situation and transport the reader into the world of little Grégoire. In the numerous works by Anna Gavalda, the topic always revolves around the central theme of love, which has positive and negative sides.

effect

In this novel for young people, Anna Gavalda criticizes the authoritarian French school system: The students are taught the material without taking individual talents into account. Gavalda advocates motivated, interested and fair teachers whose task should be to make the students enjoy learning.

Original edition

Anna Gavalda: 35 kilos d'espoir . Bayard Jeunesse, Paris 2002, ISBN 978-2747006606 .

translation

Ursula Schregel: 35 kilos of hope . Bloomsbury, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-8270-5014-4 .

literature

• Helmut Keil (Ed.): “Afterword”, In: Gavalda, Anna: 35 kilos d'espoir . Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-15-009148-7 .