Kai out of the box (novel)

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Kai out of the box: a very unbelievable story is a children's novel by Wolf Durian . It first appeared as a sequel in 1924/25 in the children's newspaper Der hehre Fridolin , and then, because of its great success, as a book in 1926. The title hero Kai, a Berlin street boy, wins, with the help of his friends, the competition for the title and post of advertising king, which is awarded by an American chocolate manufacturer. The book has appeared in numerous editions in Germany to this day.

While two new brands of chocolate are to be introduced in Europe in the original sequel story, chocolate was later replaced in the book by cigarettes. In 1995 the Erika Klopp Verlag published the original version for the first time.

action

When the American “chocolate king”, Mister Joe Allan van Braams, was looking for a “king of advertising” in a newspaper advertisement in Berlin, the street boy Kai, known as the Great Rattlesnake, had himself delivered in a box to his hotel room. Mister Allan is skeptical about the application, but Kai bets his sling for $ 1,000 that the whole town will talk about him by the next morning. To accomplish this task, he gathers the secret society of street boys, the "Black Hand", together. Overnight, the boys flood the cityscape with black handprints.

The chocolate manufacturer is impressed. Now a competition is to take place between Kai and the advertising agent Kubalski: Everyone has to advertise as much as possible for one of the new chocolate brands TUT and TAT within two days. Mister Allan will award points and make the advertising king who reaches 150 points first. Both parties then work with all sorts of tricks: Mr Kubalski tries to have Kai arrested by the police; Kai and the "Black Hand" sabotage the TAT advertising by collecting flyers and pasting posters. At the same time, they are launching a TUT campaign on such a massive scale that the authorities end up banning all advertising in the city.

This ban will doom for Mr Kubalski, who has just initiated a conspicuous advertising campaign with giant chocolate bars that can no longer be stopped in time. Fearing arrest, he fled, and Kai was only too happy to help. This eliminates the competition and Kai can still collect enough points at the last minute from Mister Allan to become the king of advertising.

background

The author and journalist Isa Schikorsky wrote about Durian's book: “Wolf Durian and Kai triggered a small revolution out of the box” and explained that the story shows the New Objectivity of children's and young people's books typical of the time : “In the straightforward language, the concentrated action, the neutral representation from the point of view of a film camera, the rapid narrative pace that corresponds to the dynamics of big city life, and the current topic of advertising, which is extremely fascinating for people ”.

Adaptations

Foreign language editions

  • Bill of the black hand: a very tall story . London: Jonathan Cape, 1935.
  • Vojtíšek z bedny . Zlín: Žáci Masarykových škol, 1939.
  • Kaï, roi de la pub . Paris: Hachette, 1988. ISBN 2-01-013644-6 .
  • Kai, el de la caja . Madrid: Siruela, 1991. ISBN 84-7844-075-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Isa Schikorsky: crash course for children and young people . DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-8321-7600-4 , p. 121