Bille and Zottel
| Children's and young people's literature | |
|---|---|
| title | Bille and Zottel |
| Original title | Bille and Zottel |
| country |
 Germany
|
| author | Rosemarie Eitzert (Tina Caspari) |
| publishing company | Franz Schneider Publishing House |
| First publication | 1976-2008 |
| expenditure | 21st |
Bille und Zottel is the title of a 21-volume horse book series by the German author Rosemarie Eitzert under her pseudonym Tina Caspari.
The plot of the series was influenced by the biography of its author - Billes mother, like Tina Caspari's family, comes from East Prussia . The Zottel pony also has a real role model.
Plot and main characters
The main character of the books is the twelve-year-old Sibylle Abromeit, called Bille, who lives with her widowed mother in the small Schleswig-Holstein village of Wedenbruck. Billes mother remarries - Billes stepfather "Uncle Paul". Bille has a very close relationship with her stepfather, who is far more indulgent than her energetic mother.
Bille dreams of riding; however, her mother is initially against it. In an accident, Bille meets her secret idol, the famous competition rider Hans Tiedjen, who teaches her to ride. Finally she gets her red-pied pony Shaggy, who was freed from a run-down traveling circus. Zottel's pranks - mostly about his voracity and escape attempts - make up a large part of the plot.
Billes best friend becomes Bettina, who lives on the Henrich family estate. She is the niece of the Henrichs and grew up with them after their parents were killed in a car accident. Bettina is initially traumatized and inaccessible, but finds new courage to face life through her friendship with Bille and the interaction with horses. Bettina's cousin Simon, also a talented rider, becomes Billes' friend. Other important characters are Simon's brothers Daniel and Florian, Mr. Tiedjens son Tom, the motorcycle fan Karlchen and from volume 8 the teacher Ignaz Albert and pupil of the riding school.
The group of young people around Bille who are enthusiastic about riding is characterized by their willingness to help, their commitment to friends and family as well as their solidarity and creativity. They take on responsibility in the village community and are always there when their horses help pull a wrecked truck out of the ditch or evacuate a farmstead before flooding. Almost from the beginning, but increasingly in the course of the series, tournament riding is also critically examined and the question of the correct and species-appropriate handling of the animals is always asked.
In Volume 8, numerous new characters are added, as an equestrian boarding school is being opened in the Groß-Willmsdorf manor (Mr Tiedjens home). Here the author combines two successful children's book topics - horses and boarding school life . Volume 16 is playing abroad for the first time - Simon and Bille travel together to Vienna , attend the Spanish Riding School and go to Hungary in the Puszta .
Over the years, Bille becomes a well-known tournament rider and repeatedly neglects her family, which leads to conflicts. Bille sees her injustice every time, but no change in her behavior can be seen. Other topics are also repeated - several environmental scandals are uncovered, Bille's friend Simon is repeatedly interested in other girls, but returns to Bille every time. All other youthful loves also last forever. The last volume closes with a double wedding - Bille and Simon get married, as do Tom and Bettina.
The first volumes in the series are set in the late 1970s, when they were written (Bille's year of birth is given in volume 10 as 1965). The last volumes appeared after a break of several years, and the plot was adapted to the time without the characters getting much older. When Bille graduated from high school , the euro had already been introduced. New methods of horse dressage (e.g. Tellington-Jones ) are also known.
historicity
The first seven volumes give a vivid impression of childhood and village life in the 1970s. The role expectations of young people described in the books - especially gender-related - often do not correspond to the realities of today's children and adolescents. Bille and her friends are given a lot of responsibility at a young age. Of course, as 13-year-olds, they have paid jobs as horse grooms or babysitters and work on their parents' farm or garden. In addition, they get involved in emergencies for the village community or participate in public festivities.
The distribution of tasks is mostly gender-specific: the boys carry heavy loads and take care of the manual work, while the girls are reserved for household, childcare and decoration tasks. Although it is currently emphasized again and again as a concession that the girls also wear jeans and T-shirts in everyday life, the long skirt remains the girls' normal party dress. The conception as a girl's book is obvious: the boys are often ascribed an exaggerated desire to display their alleged "masculinity", which actions always end in embarrassing failure and great laughter from bystanders. The caring and extremely helpful behavior of the girls, on the other hand, is drawn benevolently and always rewarded. Only in higher volumes from the 1980s is it discussed that Bille's helpfulness can also lead to it being exploited by thoughtless and lazy people.
Especially in the first volumes (1–4) the reader gets an insight into the mechanisms of village life in the 1970s that can no longer be found in children's books today. So it is normal that the men of the village (Billes' prospective stepfather, the village policeman, the estate manager Lohmeier) end the evening in the local inn with beer and schnapps, contracts and cattle markets go hand in hand with drinking schnapps and, if you like, a drunk driver with the The main characters have to be helped out of the ditch. The consumption of alcohol, at least by men, is a matter of course and is not critically questioned. Karlchen's grandfather, a well-known drunkard and joker, is a little embarrassing to his family, but a lovable original. In the first volumes in particular, questions of status and class affiliation run through the stories as subtext. Bille's mother, who came from East Prussia as a refugee and runs a small general store, sees herself very proudly as a member of the lower middle class - from her point of view, "better people" like Mr. Tiedjen or the Henrichs on their large estates are separated by invisible borders. She rejects riding lessons as a pleasure for the rich. At first Bille felt the Henrichs family to be "noble" alien, before the unifying love of horses was able to overcome class barriers. Wealthy Sunday riders are often the object of ridicule and pranks.
Agriculture and the course of the seasons are an integral part of the life of the village community. Berries have to be picked, fruit picked and the hay brought in. Of course, Billes mother canned her pickles herself, and the yields from her garden make up a large portion of the family meals. Most of the people in Wedenbruck seem to have at least part-time farming. Uncle Pauls Spar-Markt in the larger neighboring town of Leesten is already breathing new times over the rural idyll and, very optimistic about progress, brings refrigerated food and groceries from far away into the village.
Volume 7, "A Cowboy for Bille and Shaggy", is very revealing about America's picture of the time.
In the volumes from the 1980s - not surprisingly - topics of environmental protection are introduced. Other socially discussed topics are also taken up problematizing in the later volumes, e.g. B. the integration of people with disabilities.
Translations
The series has been translated into several languages, including Dutch . Here it appeared under the title "Romana en Ragebol".
Volumes
The Bille and Zottel series currently consists of 21 volumes (year of publication in brackets) .
- 1: Horse love at first sight (1976)
- 2: Two Inseparable Friends (1977)
- 3: With a horse through thick and thin (1977)
- 4: Applause for Bille and Zottel (1978)
- 5: The most beautiful holidays on horseback (1978)
- 6: Danger in the paddock (1979)
- 7: A Cowboy for Bille and Zottel (1979)
- 8: A Movie Star With Four Legs (1980)
- 9: In the saddle through the summer (1980)
- 10: Riding major (1982)
- 11: Sensation in the Manege (1983)
- 12: Spring, Friends, Cheeky Foals (1984)
- 13: The Festival of Horses (1985)
- 14: A Pony on a Great Migration (1987)
- 15: Horses in the Snow (1989)
- 16: Puszta holidays and pony letters (1990)
- 17: Wedenbruck Riding Club (1991)
- 18: The Final Hurdle (1995)
- 19: A Pony with a Heart (1996)
- A very special summer - Subtitle: "A new story" (2003-2008)
- 20: return to Wedenbruck (2001-2007)
In the meantime, all 21 volumes have been published in seven anthologies . The special volume plays before volume 20; it is also included in anthology 7 in this order (19 - "... Summer" - 20).
All Bille and Zottel books were published by Franz Schneider Verlag .
Radio play series
From 1980 the first four volumes appeared as a radio play on the Europa label . Directed by Heikedine Körting . Speakers were u. a. Alexandra Wilcke , Oliver Rohrbeck and Jürgen Thormann . The music was composed by the Hamburg radio play musician Carsten Bohn .
Seven stories (volumes 4 to 10) by Bille and Zottel were also brought to market as radio plays by SchneiderTon. In some of the episodes, the narrator was Hans Clarin .
In 2008, the Schneider Buch publisher published the first two episodes of a new series of audio books by Bille and Zottel on CD. The third part "With a horse through thick and thin" was announced for February 2009, but never appeared.
swell
- Caspari on the website of Schneider Verlag ( Memento from March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )