The nest
The Nest (original title: The Nest ) is a children's novel by the Canadian writer Kenneth Oppel , illustrated by the Canadian artist Jon Klassen . The book tells a story somewhere between reality, fantasy and dream, centered around the anxious boy Steve. This troubles him with his nightmares, in which a vicious wasp queen offers him to replace his sick brother Theodor, who has just been born, with a healthy brother.
The Nest was published on September 29, 2015 by the American publisher Simon & Schuster in American English and has a length of 256 pages. The German translation by Jessika Komina and Sandra Knuffinke was published by Dressler Verlag on January 25, 2016 and comprises 217 pages. Further translations of the book appeared in Spain , England and Denmark , among others . The nest can be assigned to different literary genres. In addition to the characteristics of a children's book, it also has the characteristics of a thriller and a fantasy novel . Among other things, the nest negotiates topics such as being different, normality, loneliness, family cohesion and childish fears.
The nest was featured in the Editors' Choice category in the New York Times Book Review and received the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award (2016), among other things . In Germany it drew Germany radio than one of the seven best books for young readers in April 2016th In the features section , Das Nest was described as “dark and disturbing” and “unnerving psychological thriller” ( Publishers Weekly , July 20, 2015), “compelling and accessible” (Kirkus Review, October 6, 2015), “scary and subtle” ( New York Times , Aimee Bender , October 9, 2015), “great book” ( The Guardian , Marcus Sedgwick , April 30, 2016) and “psychological masterpiece” ( Süddeutsche Zeitung , Maren Bonacker, May 27, 2016).
content
Summary
Steve's parents come home with their newly born baby Theo. It has a rare disease and will never get completely well. You spend a lot of time with the newborn in the hospital and are often sad. In a dream, shining beings appear to Steve who tell him that they can restore the baby to health. One of the beings becomes his friend. In the course of the plot it turns out that the beings are not angels, but wasps who build a nest at Steve's house. In the nest, they are said to be raising a new, healthy baby. Steve finds out that the creature he is talking to in the dream is the wasp queen and that they want to replace Theo with the baby bred in the wasp's nest. Steve doesn't feel comfortable with the plan anymore and doesn't want to be part of it anymore. Even so, the wasp queen tries to keep manipulating him. Steve is no longer sure whether the wasps only exist in dreams. He finds more and more evidence that his dreams are real. When the bred baby is finished, the wasp queen asks Steve to give his baby brother for it. Steve refuses to do what the wasps attack his house and sting him, causing him to almost die. With the help of Mr. Nobody, a figure who has previously dealt with the wasps, Steve kills the wasp queen and saves Theo.
Chapter 1
Steve dreams of beings for the first time on the tenth night after the baby is born. He hears strange music, sees everything in a bright light and initially considers beings to be angels. He has the feeling that they know and are watching him. One of the beings comes closer and radiates brightness. It tells Steve they came for the baby.
Chapter 2
Steve sometimes overhears his parents talking about doctors and prognoses for his baby brother in the evenings. His father explains to him that the baby is not healthy. His parents are very busy with the baby and Steve often thinks about his dream. One day the family eats outside and Nicole uses her toy phone to talk to the imaginary character Mr. Nobody. Steve is stung in the hand by a wasp and has an allergic reaction. He drives to the hospital with his parents and feels guilty because his parents have to look after him. The night after the wasp sting, Steve has a nightmare that he often dreams, but this time the glowing beings appear again and drive away the nightmare figure. Steve stands in a dream in a bright cave and the being tells him that they can fix the fault that the baby has.
Chapter 3
Steve tells his mother about the dream. Later, the babysitter Vanessa discovers a wasp nest at Steve's family house and suspects that it is not normal wasps. You hear the knife man's bell and wave to him. In the evening Steve tells his parents about the wasp's nest and his father promises to take care of it.
Chapter 4
Steve finds himself in the bright cave again in his dream and talks to the figure, which he still cannot see exactly. The figure asks about Steve and his family, and Steve is very comfortable with her. The figure says they will not fix the baby and will start from scratch, but gives no further information. Steve wakes up feeling very happy.
When Steve is home alone, he hears the knife man in his car. He stops and knocks on the front door, but Steve is scared and doesn't answer. The knife man sees Steve through the window and shows him a knife that he leaves on the porch before he drives away. Steve's father takes the knife into custody, but suspects that the knife man is harmless. Steve dreams again and this time can see the being a little more precisely. The character tells Steve that they are working on the baby until Steve realizes that this is not his brother, but another baby. The creature tells him that they plan to replace the baby with a new one that they are breeding in their nest next to the house.
Chapter 5
Steve is very scared of his dream. Vanessa catches one of the wasps in the garden and takes it to examine it. Steve dreams of the creatures again and feels very uncomfortable. He realizes that they are not angels but wasps and that the speaker is the wasp queen. Steve tells the Queen that he doesn't want her to harm his baby brother and that he doesn't want to see the baby the wasps are raising. The Queen gets angry and intimidates Steve. She also complains that Vanessa killed the captured wasp, something Steve didn't know about.
The next day, Steve asks Vanessa about the wasp and the Queen's statement comes true. Steve realizes that these aren't normal dreams.
Chapter 6
Steve is home alone and angrily decides to remove the wasp's nest because his parents didn't care. He climbs up a ladder and hits the nest with a broom. The wasps pour out of the nest and sit on Steve, but don't sting. Steve slowly descends the ladder, and the further he is from the nest, the more wasps let go of him. Somebody saw Steve on the ladder and called his parents. They are angry with him and so Steve tells them about his dreams. His mother then starts crying and his father suggests that Steve talk to his therapist again.
Chapter 7
Steve is with his therapist Dr. Brown. They talk about Steve's fears and behaviors and how Steve tries to deal with them. Dr. Brown asks Steve about his nightmares and the wasps and explains to him that what happens in the dream stays in the dream. Steve mentions that something the Wasp Queen said came true and that they are not normal wasps, but Dr. Brown finds a logical explanation for everything. Back home, Steve talks to Vanessa about the baby, and Vanessa tells him about her kidney disease to show Steve that many people are broken. Steve's parents have to take the baby to the hospital because it has a virus. They are very scared because they do not know whether this will make the baby strong enough for heart surgery. The following night, Steve is back in his dream in the wasp's nest, where the new baby is just pupating. The Queen predicts that Theo will never be strong enough for the operation and will have to die. She mentions to Steve that there is one thing he still needs to help them with, but doesn't go into it. She tells Steve how sad his parents will be when the baby dies because he didn't help the wasps with their plan. Steve tells himself that everything is really just a dream and agrees, even if he doesn't know exactly what he said “yes” to. He wakes up crying because he feels like he has done something terrible.
Chapter 8
Steve's parents bring the baby home, but they don't know if it will be strong enough for the operation. Steve sees the wasp queen's statement confirmed. When they eat they hear baby screams through the baby monitor, but when they get to Theo, he is sleeping very quietly. Steve's parents suspect they received the screaming on another channel, but Steve thinks they heard the baby from the wasp's nest. It's getting darker and darker in the wasp's nest because the baby keeps growing. The Queen appears and confirms Steve's suspicion about the baby crying. The baby in the nest is no longer in its cocoon and Steve realizes how beautiful it is. The Queen finally explains to Steve what to do. All he has to do is open the window and remove the screen as soon as the baby is ready so that the wasps can swap him for Theo. Steve tries to convince himself that everything is not real and just a dream. So the Queen bites his hand and when Steve wakes up he has bite marks on the back of his hand.
Chapter 9
Steve suggests to his father not to have the wasp's nest removed, but his father can no longer change his mind. When Steve secretly searches for the exterminator's number in his parents' desk, the knife is found again. Nicole calls Steve from the other room and says that Mr. Nobody is on the phone for him. To do his sister a favor, Steve takes the toy phone, but someone actually speaks from it and tells Steve that he will need the knife. When Steve asks, Nicole tells that she has spoken to Mr. Nobody, the voice on the phone, and that he tells her that the wasps can do bad things to the baby, but that Steve will take care of Theo. Steve's mother later announces that the baby is stronger again and that the operation is scheduled for the weekend.
Chapter 10
Steve is back in the nest and tells the wasp queen about the call. The Queen claims that the voice is the figure from Steve's nightmares and his enemy. Steve tells the Queen that he has changed his mind and wants to keep Theo as his brother. He asks the queen questions about her plan until she says they want to exchange the baby and take the old baby, Theo, back to the nest to feed on. Steve emphasizes once again that he doesn't want any of this anymore, but the Queen doesn't want to hear about it.
Chapter 11
On Friday, Steve is home alone and knows that the wasps will soon want to come to exchange the baby. He's making a list of things he needs to fight the wasps when the wasp queen uses the baby monitor to ask him to open the window of Theo's room. He walks up into the room and sees that there is a huge swarm of wasps outside the window. When Steve doesn't want to open the window, they sit on the window frame and slowly begin to gnaw through. Steve runs through the house to make sure all the windows are closed. Then he puts on several layers of clothing and packs a backpack with bug spray, duct tape and a fly swatter. He calls the fire department and tells about the wasps in a panic, but the woman on the phone doesn't believe him. Steve runs back into the baby room and suddenly sees a wasp on the wall. He kills her and notices that the wasps are getting into the house through the air conditioning. Steve straps Theo to his body with the baby sling and tapes the air conditioning shut. He walks through the house and notices more wasps emerging from the walk-in closet. There is a hatch in the wardrobe that leads to the mezzanine floor of the house. Steve opens the hatch and discovers that there is another huge wasp nest there. Steve is hiding from the wasps in the guest room when he hears Nicole's toy phone ringing in the other room. Steve picks up the phone and Mr Nobody instructs him to use the knife over the phone. Steve manages to kill a lot of wasps with the knife and bug spray, but then the swarm manages to eat its way through the window frame and get into the house. Steve locks himself in the bathroom with Theo and starts taping all the slits, but he doesn't have much left, and the wasps quickly manage to eat their way through the tape. More and more wasps invade the bathroom and sit on Steve, who is trying to protect Theo. They stab Steve on every exposed part of the body until he passes out.
Chapter 12
When Steve wakes up, he's alone in a narrow room in the wasp's nest. The only opening is completely filled by the wasp queen. Steve threatens the queen to destroy the nest. Then the queen tells him that he is almost dead and Steve notices that his heartbeat is only very weak. The queen locks Steve in the cell and he notices that the larva of the new wasp queen is also locked there. The larva tries to eat him when Mr. Nobody rushes to help him with the knife. He explains to Steve that he is not dead yet, but that in order to save Theo and himself, he must kill the wasp queen. They find the queen and Steve hits her with the knife but does not catch her. The Queen pierces Steve with her stinger so that the stinger goes through his chest and heart. Steve collapses, but thinking of Theo, he gathers his last strength and rams the knife in the back of the queen. Then he pulls himself up to her neck and begins to saw off her head. He manages to kill the queen. The worker wasps then let go of the baby.
Chapter 13
Steve wakes up from the paramedics resuscitating him. You can just tell him that he saved Theo's life before he goes back to sleep. His parents later tell him that someone called the police anonymously to let them know that the wasps were attacking the house. The fire brigade moved in and scared away the wasps. Theo had only got two stings, but Steve was stabbed so many times that his throat was swollen shut and he was dead for twenty-five seconds before he could be resuscitated. Theo can be operated on as planned and survives the operation well. When Steve looks at the empty wasp's nest in the garden, which the fire department had sprayed down with a water hose, he finds a tiny fingernail in it.
characters
main characters
Steve
Steve is an insecure and scared boy. He is afraid of the dark and has vivid nightmares. He broods a lot and often feels tired and sad. For a long time he took part in a therapy in which he talked about the fact that he has to wash his hands compulsively, only drinks from certain drinking fountains for hygienic reasons, always has disinfectants with him and is afraid of getting in to hand over to the school. Steve has panic attacks every now and then and sometimes feels "like he's in pieces" (p. 102). Steve has few friends and spends most of his school time alone with books or puzzles. By fifth grade he had an imaginary boyfriend named Henry who Steve doesn't really miss because he rather longs for a real person to talk to and who will help him get along with certain things in his life. Steve likes to be in control of his life and it makes him feel better when he knows the right words for something. Before he goes to bed in the evening, he works off two lists that he has drawn up. On the first list are all the things that Steve is grateful for and that should help him to be more happy about the good things in life so that he is no longer so sad. The second list includes all of the people Steve wishes they were fine. Going through the lists is almost like a prayer to Steve, even though he doesn't really believe in God. Steve is a very empathetic person and cares a lot about his parents. Since his parents are often sad about the baby, Steve often feels bad too. When the wasp queen offers to exchange the baby, he hopes that his parents will be happier again.
Wasp queen
The wasp queen appears to Steve in his dreams. At first Steve sees her indistinctly and thinks she is an angel. Only later does it take on a concrete form and become recognizable as a wasp queen. In reality, the wasp queen stung Steve in the garden. Therefore, in the dream, whenever she touches Steve, she can communicate with him. Because of the sting, she knows almost everything about him and uses the information to unsettle and manipulate him. At the beginning, however, she is still understanding and caring for Steve. She asks him how he and his family are doing and explains a lot about the baby. Her caring and friendly manner makes him feel good. However, their character changes over time. She gets angry when Steve doesn't want to act the way she wants. She is very calculating, for example when she asks Steve: “But who is talking to you? Who comforts you? ”(P. 119). So she hits his sore spot exactly.
Minor characters
Steve's family
Steve's father
Steve's father is often lost in thought about the baby and at times easily irritable. He tries as best he can to look after Steve's mother and also to check regularly with Steve how he is doing. However, Steve quickly reacts annoyed to his dreams and fears.
Steve's mother
Steve's mother is often sad and crying about the baby. She reads her horoscope every day, but doesn't really believe in it. Steve once tells her that she doesn't believe in angels either. She used to go to church with her family a lot, but has not done so for several years. She once dreams that she was given the wrong baby in the hospital and that she is now having the right and healthy baby. However, I am very ashamed of this dream.
Nicole
Nicole is Steve's younger sister. She is a carefree and happy girl who does not worry much. She prays every night. Nicole loves it when the knife man comes by and looks forward to it every time. She also speaks to Mr. Nobody regularly on her toy phone.
Theodore
Theodor is the new baby in Steve's family. He has a rare disease that has only had a name for a few years and little is known about it. Theodor has health problems with the heart, brain and eyes and has to undergo heart surgery.
Further
Vanessa
Vanessa is Nicole and Steve's babysitter and lives in the neighborhood. She is studying zoology at the university and explains a lot to Steve and Nicole about wasps. Vanessa always smells of musty clothes and greasy hair and speaks very slowly and calmly, like a teacher. When Steve worries about the baby, she tells him that she has kidney disease herself and that sooner or later she will need a donor kidney. This is how she makes it clear to Steve that something is wrong with everyone and that the baby is completely normal.
The knife man or Mr. Nobody
The knife man is an older, strikingly tall man with a slightly stooped gait, hollow cheeks, and gray, stubbly hair. He only has four fingers on each hand and only speaks the local language broken. Since this summer he has been coming to Steve's family's residential area and driving his strange van through the streets offering people to sharpen their knives. He keeps ringing a bell. When Steve is home alone once, the knife man knocks on the door. When Steve doesn't open the door he leaves a knife on the porch and waves to Steve again. When Steve climbs the ladder in the garden to remove the wasp's nest himself, a man calls his parents to warn them. Since the man on the phone didn't speak the local language very well, Steve suspects it was the knife man. The day Steve and Theo are attacked by the wasps, another anonymous call comes in to the police to alert them to the wasps. Here, too, Steve suspects the knife man. Steve's parents find out that they are apparently the only ones who have met the knife man and that the neighbors have never seen him.
Mr. Nobody is initially viewed by Steve's family as Nicole's fancy friend, whom she talks to on her toy phone. However, one day when Nicole calls Steve on her phone, Mr. Nobody actually answers and says that he is worried about Steve and that he will need the knife. It turns out that Nicole has spoken to Mr. Nobody before and that he warned her about the wasps and told her to take care of Steve and Theo. He also revealed to Nicole that the wasps can do bad things to the baby, but that Steve will protect it. When Steve talks to the Wasp Queen about Mr. Nobody, she claims that Mr. Nobody is the shadow of Steve's nightmares and his enemy. After Steve was attacked by the wasps, he meets Mr. Nobody for the first time in his dream in the wasp's nest when he saves him from the larva. Mr. Nobody has a real face, just what looks like a child's scrawl, and arms and legs difficult to see. In addition, he has only four fingers and the knife with him on each hand, which is why Steve suspects that the knife man and Mr. Nobody are identical. "" The knife man, "I muttered. "Mr. Nobody", he confirmed. "(P. 202). Mr. Nobody explains that he is not alive and moves mainly through people's dreams. He chooses who can see him and explains to Steve that he wasn't the character from his nightmares, but that it was just Steve's fantasy. He indicates that he was also replaced by the wasps once, just as Steve's little brother is to be replaced, and that he warns people about the wasps because of this. That's why he came to Steve to show him the way and to give him the knife. When Steve is discharged from the hospital and goes to bed at home, before he goes to sleep, he has the feeling of hearing “Mr. Nobody's bell ringing” (p. 217). It is clear to Steve that Messermann and Mr. Nobody are one person.
Dr. Brown
Dr. Brown is Steve's therapist. He has bushy, gray eyebrows and sometimes smells of old coffee and cigarettes. He has a very calming voice and always smiles kindly.
Literary criticism
The nest received an overall positive response from the press. The New York Times commented " The Nest leaves a lasting mark on the memory" (Aimee Bender, October 9, 2015) and the Kirkus Review called it "Compelling and accessible" (Kirkus Review, July 15, 2015). Shelf Awareness added "Readers are challenged to examine questions about what" normal "is ... all in the guise of a fantastical thriller." (Karin Snelson, October 2015).
Nominations and Awards
The nest received various awards. Among the most important were CLA's 2016 Book of the Year for Children (2016). All awards as an overview:
| 2015 | Wall Street Journal Best Books 2015 |
| 2015 | SLJ Best of 2015 |
| 2016 | CLA's 2016 Book of the Year for Children |
| 2016 | ALA Notable Children's Books 2016 |
| February 2016 | Toad of the month |
| April 2016 | The best 7 books for young readers in April |
Audio book
On October 6, 2015, Simon & Schuster Audio published an audio book version of the American version of the book, which was read by Gibson Frazier.
Public book presentations
The book was presented as a German premiere in the presence of the writer at the children's and youth program at the 16th Berlin International Literature Festival in September 2016.
Web links
- Reading sample of the original and German versions of the book
- Book trailer (in English)
- Reading Guide to the Book (in English)
- Original language and German language publisher website for the book
- Website of the author , the illustrator and the translators of the book
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.dressler-verlag.de/
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/KennethOppelFan
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/books/review/editors-choice.html
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/kritik-die-7-besten-buecher-fuer-junge-leser-im-april.1202.de.html?dram:article_id=348828
- ↑ http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4814-3232-0
- ↑ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kenneth-oppel/the-nest/
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/books/review/the-nest-by-kenneth-oppel.html?_r=0
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/nest-kenneth-oppel-jon-klassen-review
- ↑ Wasp dreams. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 26, 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/books/review/the-nest-by-kenneth-oppel.html?_r=0
- ↑ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kenneth-oppel/the-nest/
- ↑ http://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=443#m7777
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://graphics.wsj.com/best-books-2015/
- ↑ http://www.slj.com/2015/11/reviews/best-books-feature/best-books-2015-the-nest-middle-grade/#_
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb
- ↑ http://www.stube.at/buchtipps/kroeten2016.htm
- ↑ http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/kritik-die-7-besten-buecher-fuer-junge-leser-im-april.1202.de.html?dram:article_id=348828
- ↑ http://www.simonandschuster.biz/
- ↑ http://www.literaturfestival.com/kjl
