The summer I get famous (without my parents noticing)
The summer in which I become famous (without my parents noticing) (original title: Geel Gras ) is a children's book by the Dutch writer Simon van der Geest . It tells the story of Finja, who is forgotten by her parents on a campsite in France . Together with Jantwan, she forges a plan to find her parents again.
Van der Geests debut The summer when I become famous in 2009 when Dutch Querido Verlag in Dutch published and is 120 pages. The German translation was published in 2011 by the Oetinger publishing group and has 112 pages. Eva Schweikart did the translation. The book was nominated for the Golden Book Owl in 2009.
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Finja is on holiday in France with her parents at a campsite. On the day she leaves, Finja wakes up and her parents are gone. You forgot her - and not for the first time. Last summer she had buried herself in the sand. Unable to free herself, she had to watch as her parents headed for the car and did not come back until evening because they noticed that their daughter was not there.
Finja is close to tears. But she ponders how she can remind her parents to finally turn back and, pulling a long tree trunk behind her, climbs to the highest point in the area: a hill with a castle. Once there, she ties her pink sweater to the trunk like a flag. But it is not her parents who notice her signal, but Jantwan, who is waving a sweater flag and is actually called Jean-Antoine. He has fled from his overprotective mother, who forbids him anything that children enjoy. Finja tells him that she is going on vacation alone.
When the two of them go to their tent to sleep there, a trailer is parked where their parents had their tent, and a large German shepherd is blocking the way. He starts yapping and running towards them so that they have to flee. Finja can persuade Jantwan to go swimming for the first time in his life. The two dive, look at the moon underwater and dress up as sea witches. Fortunately, when they return to the tent, the dog has fallen asleep.
The next day Finja Jantwan confesses that she is not alone on vacation, but that her parents forgot her. He promises to help her find her parents. But first they lose each other in the city and Finja is almost beaten up by older boys before she finds Jantwan on a fairground. The two got the idea that they could become famous, so that Finja can find her parents again and Jantwan can free himself from his mother's rules.
While they are still thinking about how to implement their plan, the two watch a baker who is carrying a huge cake into a tent. When he leaves, they sneak to the cake with growling stomachs to nibble on it. They almost get caught. They see the last resort in hiding in the cake, which is hollow on the inside. The men who have entered the tent lock some pigeons to the children before they lock the little door through which the two came in. Suddenly the two of them have an idea how to become famous. When the cake is finally carried out to free the pigeons, Yantwan flings Finja out of the cake and she lands on the arms of the crowd.
Jantwan's mother is also in the crowd and infinitely happy to have her son back, but she has to promise him that from now on he can swim, play football and run barefoot through grass. After the two addresses have exchanged, Finja now returns to her tent alone and dreams of her fame. The next morning she hears a car braking - her parents have returned - and they haven't even noticed Finja's fame.
characters
Finja
For eleven-year-old Finja, it is not the first time that her parents have forgotten her and she initially deals with the situation in a relatively pragmatic manner and tries to somehow remind her parents that they have forgotten it. But she still feels unloved and at first doesn't tell Jantwan the truth about why she lives alone at the campsite. Even though Finja outwardly pretends to be strong, she still has to fight back tears when she thinks of her parents and is afraid that the two of them will get a nicer child because she accidentally caused a little trouble for her father. Nevertheless, she loves her parents, who are ultimately just scumbling and is happy when the two come back to pick her up.
Yantvan
Jantwan, who is just as old as Finja, has fled from his overprotective mother, who does not allow him to bathe in the lake because there are leeches there, and also not in the pool because there is too much chlorine in it. He is not allowed to run, play soccer, walk barefoot through the grass or sing at the table. In addition, he always has to eat hearty bread and two apples every day because - according to his mother - he has a weak jaw. That's why he doesn't trust himself when Finja asks him to climb over the grating with the tips or to go swimming in the lake. But Jantwan slowly blossoms in their company and enjoys the shared adventures. When he meets his mother again, he can tell her with increased self-confidence what he doesn't like.
Literary genre and style
The summer when I become famous can be classified into different literary genres. In addition to being classified as a children's book , it has the characteristics of an adventure story, but also of a development novel .
Public book presentations
The book was presented as an international 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 language version of the book
- Publishing website for the book
- Website of the author , illustrator and translator of the book
Individual evidence
- ↑ Geel gras - Querido Kinderboeken ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Children's books - Oetinger.de
- ↑ Simon van der Geest - Geel Gras
- ↑ http://www.literaturfestival.com/kjl
