Detective Pinky

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Detective Pinky is the title of a book by the writer Gert Prokop for young people . The novella was first published in 1982 by the children's book publisher Berlin ( GDR ). The illustrations in the book are by Klaus Vonderwerth . In 2000 , the director Stefan Lukschy took on a cinematic adaptation of the material entitled Pinky and the Mops .

content

The main character of Prokop's book for young people is Absolon W. Beaver, affectionately known by his friends as Pinky, a twelve-year-old boy who spends most of his free time sitting on his garbage can six floors above the city. Most of the time Pinky chases away reading or dreaming. His greatest desire - to become a recognized detective - is already reflected in his self-chosen nickname, a derivative of Pinkerton .

The orphan Pinky lives with his friends “Monster” and Marie-Antoinette “Princess” in the orphanage of the Potters “Potters Children's Home” in the fictional American city ​​of Kittsburgh. Rather coincidentally, Pinky helps the well-known millionaire Morgan to solve a problem regarding the future distribution of his fortune and thus gains access to the world of the "rich and beautiful" of the small town, who subsequently fall back on Pinky's detective skills again and again.

During the course of the story, Pinky developed noticeable negotiating skills, although he negotiated his fee largely selflessly. In addition to small compensations for himself and his friends, this always includes gifts for the other children in the orphanage, such as new furniture and new clothes, which the respective client can also declare as a donation. In addition, after the case has been successfully resolved, clients always donate an animal to the local zoo.

Up to his 13th birthday, Pinky solves nine criminal cases, arranges a family for his best friend Monster to take him in, and triggers a donation boom in the Kittsburgher Tierpark, as other wealthy citizens of the small town follow the example of Pinky's clients and the zoo can look forward to lively growth as a result. As compensation for a client's failure to keep a promise, an elephant is donated to the zoo at the end of the book - as the plaque in front of the cage reveals, by Absolon W. Beaver. The book ends with the same sentence with which Gert Prokop opened it: Pinky sat on his garbage can and dreamed.

The stories

  • Background: How Kittsburgh got a monkey
  • 1st case: the ghost of the Ashtons
  • 2nd case: all cats are gray at night
  • 3rd case: the kidnapper
  • 4th case: The wrong Santa Claus
  • 5th case: masquerades
  • Case 6: Deadly Dreams
  • 7th case: murder at the fairground
  • 8th case: the flower thief
  • 9th case: poor Abraham

filming

Loosely based on the youth book Prokops, the director Stefan Lukschy filmed it under the title Pinky and the Million Pug . Jaime Krsto , Hans Clarin and Heinrich Schafmeister played the leading roles . The film adaptation, however, only loosely stuck to the original book and did not take up the critical mood of the novella.

Structural analysis

  • Introductory sentence in various variations - "(Pinky sat on his garbage can and dreamed.)"
  • Events on the roof of the orphanage with "Monster" and "Princess"
  • Contact by the respective client
  • Fee negotiations with the client
  • Pinky's investigation begins
  • Solution to the case by Pinky

The protagonists

The characters in the book are multi-layered by Prokop and suggest a socially critical perspective, which can also be shown with a few examples.

As the stories progress, a friendship develops between the orphan Pinky and the police officer Captain Henderson, who must be considered law-abiding. In the course of the sixth case, Fatal Dreams , he helps Henderson break up a drug ring, for which a reward has been set. Knowing that Pinky wouldn’t get the money by his 18th birthday, he throws the boy an envelope with confiscated drug money for $ 873, making himself a criminal offense.

Other protagonists certainly offer the boy cigars and whiskey, which Pinky does not refuse, at least in part. Pinky refuses a cognac offered to him by Morgan, but smokes a cigar offered to him. Later, after successfully solving the flower thief case, he cannot defend himself against the wine on offer.

Prokop did not forego a clear swipe at politics either. During an investigation in the house of the respected Appleby, Pinky asks the Democrat for an elephant for the local zoo, which would lead to a scandal, however, since the elephant is the heraldic animal of the Republicans . The senator, who is immediately sympathetic to him, later replies to Pinky's question whether he always makes honest speeches: “What is truth? I mean, I never lie outright, but ... "

Furthermore, his clients weigh themselves in the security that a twelve-year-old orphan offers them. In terms of credibility, Pinky would always be at a disadvantage in such cases, since while his reputation is impeccable, the word of an orphan in such cases would always stand against the rich and influential citizen of Kittsburgh.

useful information

The detective stories devised by Gert Prokop under the title Detective Pinky follow the classic whodunit crime thriller principle . Only at the end of each story is the perpetrator or perpetrators exposed by the youngster Pinky. Also certain parallels to the crime stories about Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle are not only to be found on second consideration. If one compares the structural analysis of the novel Detective Pinky with those of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, one finds significant similarities.

However, the book is not suitable for children of all ages and already bears the note that it is only suitable for readers aged 12 and over , since Pinky, as already mentioned, consumes alcoholic beverages and also briefly smokes a cigar.

As part of the plot, Prokop also takes up various socially critical aspects:

  • Drug consumption or abuse in the 6th case, fatal dreams
  • Racism in the 8th case The flower thief .

Before the book was published in 1982, there were preprints of the first stories in the yearbooks of the children's book publisher Berlin. The first case of How Kittsburgh got a monkey appeared in Volume C in 1978 ( The Fairytale Pig in the Forest ). The ghost of the Ashtons was published in 1979 in volume D ( In the town hall of Groß-Schilda ), and is subtitled Pinky's second case . Two more cases appeared by 1981, then the yearbooks ceased to be preprinted in the year the book Detective Pinky was published.

In 2011 the book was published in the ZEIT edition “Krimis für Junge Arbeiter”, a selection of 15 volumes for children between 8 and 13 years of age.

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