Witching hour in kindergarten

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Witching Hour in Kindergarten is a picture book story for preschool children by the author Ulrich Karger and the illustrator Uli Waas, translated into several languages .

content

Summary

The story is about a kindergarten group who spend the night together with their teacher in the group room around Halloween . Panels are finished and pumpkins are hollowed out for the candles. Before the "witching hour", the children talk while brushing their teeth, who is afraid of ghosts. Apparently Jonas doesn't have any. Lisa, on the other hand, admits that she's a little scared of them, but she knows a good trick against it. Her father gave her a star that she can see from anywhere. Just to think of the bright star will drive away darkness and evil spirits. Jonas thinks this is utter nonsense - but when everyone romps through the group room in disguise, you can see him holding onto the teacher. And when they finally have to go to bed, all the children agree: the light must stay on in the hallway.

theme

The picture book takes up the child's desire to dress up and to scare each other. This, in turn, provides the opportunity for the children in the book to address their fear of the dark and ghosts. There are two ways in which they and their parents can counter these fears.

Furnishing

The book is bound as a hardcover . Spread over 24 pages in A4 format, the color illustrations are all laid out as borderless double pages. The text, in turn, is inserted into the image pages without any further delimitation.

criticism

The German-language original version of the picture book has received positive reviews several times in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. In addition to some print media, bodies focusing on children's and young people's literature , such as the Working Groups for Young People's Literature and Media (AJuM) of the GEW and similar institutions of the libraries in Switzerland, have commented on the book.

For example, a circular from the Association of Protestant Libraries in Hesse and Nassau states that, given the right preparation, the “creepy effect” of such a night of ghosts and ghosts is “certainly quite significant” for small children. But in the pictures “fortunately the children behind the masks are still recognizable”, and that together with the mentioned “tricks” should also “certainly help fearful picture book viewers to cope with all the ghosts”. The AJuM Bremen also attests that the book is “written sensitively and child-friendly. The author knows how to present the topic of fear in a vivid and age-appropriate way ”. And the pictures are said to be “colorful” and “contain numerous details that can encourage the viewer to look closely and to speak.” From this, the Munich Youth Literature Committee, which argues almost identically, concluded that the picture book is an “absolute must for Kindergarten and elementary school. "

The other language editions of this picture book were usually discussed in a similarly friendly manner. However , there were also two critical voices about the abridged translation of the text by J. Alison James in the English edition The Scary Sleepover . The most negative is Hannah Hoppe's, according to which “the title is misleading” and “little terrifying thing happens in the story”, and “the text is very flat compared to the stimulating images”. Vicki Arkoff, on the other hand, concedes to the picture book to be "a gentle bedtime story" that helps "calm down any nervousness before going to bed". However, she points out right at the beginning that it is obviously a translated story from Germany - because “which parents in the USA would let their children stay in kindergarten?” However, like Sharon Salluzzo, everyone else agreed that this picture book was "Would certainly be loved by children because of his combination of imagination and practical measures in dealing with the fear of the dark".

expenditure

Translations

The picture book has been translated into five languages:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Quote on the book from: Rundbrief 3, Association of Protestant Libraries in Hesse and Nassau ; September 2002
  2. ^ Quote on the book from: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Jugendliteratur und Medien (AJuM) in the GEW Bremen; May 2003
  3. ↑ Quote on the book from: BLLV - Jugendschriftenausschuss München, 23 November 2002
  4. ↑ See also The Scary Sleepover - an article on the English language Wikipedia
  5. ↑ Analogous quote for the English translation The Scary Sleepover from: Hannah Hoppe: Miles City Public Library, MT
  6. ↑ Analogous quotations to The Scary Sleepover from: Vicki Arkoff: Midwest Book Review; Volume 2, Number 11 Reviewer's Bookwatch; November 2002
  7. ↑ Analogous quote to The Scary Sleepover from: Sharon Salluzzo: Themed Reviews ( Halloween ); www.childrenslit.com October, 2002

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