James Krüss Prize for international children's and youth literature
The James Krüss Prize for International Children's and Youth Literature has been an international literature prize for authors of books for children and young people that has been awarded every two years since 2013. It is awarded in the International Youth Library on behalf of the James Krüss community of heirs.
General
The James Krüss Prize for international children's and youth literature is awarded in memory of the children's book author James Krüss . It should honor and promote storytelling, cosmopolitanism and tolerance. The prize is awarded to the work of a living author of books for children and young people who impresses with linguistic brilliance, originality, imaginative storytelling, diversity of forms and humanity. The award can be given to a German or a foreign author. The prerequisite is the presence of the award-winning work on the German-speaking book market. When foreign authors are honored, the translator (s) are also honored. The prize is endowed with 8,000 euros (as of 2019).
The 2013 award winner was the Dutch author and illustrator Joke van Leeuwen , together with her translators Hanni Ehlers and Mirjam Pressler . In 2015, the British author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce received an award together with his translator Salah Naoura . In 2017 Andreas Steinhöfel received the award and in 2019 Frida Nilsson and her translator Friederike Buchinger will be honored.
Award winners
| Award ceremony date | Excellent writer and translator | jury | Jury verdict (extract) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th July 2013 | Joke van Leeuwen , Hanni Ehlers and Mirjam Pressler for the translation | Roswitha Budeus-Budde, Robert Elstner, Christiane Raabe , Emer O'Sullivan, Michael Schmitt | “Each of her books is a small work of art. The author and illustrator has a terrific command of language and visual means. She switches between the textual and the image level with great ease, playing with the imagery of language and the symbolism of images. As with James Krüss, her work is characterized by a high sense of language and form, by a metaliterary quality of the texts in which she imaginatively wanders through the space of possibilities of literature, and by a great sympathy for her child protagonists. [...] " |
| 2nd July 2015 | Frank Cottrell Boyce , Salah Naoura for translation | Roswitha Budeus-Budde, Robert Elstner, Christiane Raabe, Emer O'Sullivan, Michael Schmitt | "Tension, humor and sympathy characterize the narrative books for children and young people by Frank Cottrell Boyce. He confronts small people in lost corners of the world with the broadcast of great art, young people with the challenges of a lot of money and children with the consequences of migration and deportation. He doesn't spare his heroines, but always breaks the drama with his sparkling humor. Frank Cottrell Boyce tells of difficult social conditions for individual families or entire regions of the world, but at the same time asks what and how art can contribute to making this life better. His books are a school of close inspection; their wit, whether in dealing with language or images, breaks through the usual superficial perceptions. [...] " |
| June 30, 2017 | Andreas Steinhöfel | Robert Elstner, Christiane Raabe, Ralf Schweikart, Emer O'Sullivan, Tilman Spreckelsen | “The middle of the world, Dirk and I, Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten: With his novels, which are characterized by astonishing lightness, originality and intensity, Andreas Steinhöfel has been a fixture in German-language children's and youth literature for many years. His work sets standards there, as it demonstrates how intensive work on the material language and awareness of the narrative lines of tradition can further develop an entire literature. It is not only in this that Steinhöfel ties in with James Krüss, whose protagonist Boy shows a productive skepticism of language with his great-grandfather, which Steinhöfel is deeply familiar with Rico and to whom we owe word creations such as 'Fundnudel' and 'Herzgebreche'. The open-mindedness and tolerance that characterize the work of James Krüss are also inscribed in Steinhöfel's novels. [...] " |
| 4th July 2019 | Frida Nilsson , Friederike Buchinger for the translation | Robert Elstner, Christiane Raabe, Ralf Schweikart, Tilman Spreckelsen , Emer O'Sullivan | "The Swedish author is an exception in modern children's literature. Respect for children and their worldview, a feeling for their vulnerability and an invincible sense of justice are aspects that characterize Frida Nilsson's work. In her stories, she enriches a radically socially critical realism with fantastic alienation effects She is part of Astrid Lindgren's Swedish storytelling tradition , which she is renewing and transferring into the 21st century. Her humanism and her clear commitment to childhood as an autonomous space of freedom make her a worthy winner on behalf of James Krüss. How James Krüss is Frida Nilsson is a gifted narrator and a master of exciting dramaturgy. She masters many varieties of humor [...] and devotes herself to the big questions of the time in a laconic, cheerful tone. [...] Her children's books combine the happiness of exploring the world, curiosity and the notion of the gathering Ernst d he adult existence. Consistently told from the child's worldview, the life of adults remains mysterious and inscrutable ... Friederike Buchinger is also honored, who has translated all of the author's novels and, language-sensitive, imaginative and imaginative, the author's various tones from Swedish to German Voice transmitted. " |