Rico, Oskar and the Deep Shadows (novel)

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Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten is a novel by Andreas Steinhöfel from 2008. It is about the friendship of two boys who together solve a criminal case involving a child kidnapper. It is the first volume in a series of books about the main characters Rico and Oskar. The series was published by Carlsen Verlag and is recommended for ages 10 and up.

Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten received several literary prizes, including the German Youth Literature Prize . A film of the same name was released in 2014 .

action

Ten-year-old Rico Doretti describes himself as “gifted”: he can think everything, but it takes longer with him than with other people, he gets confused easily and cannot concentrate well. Rico lives with his mother Tanja at Dieffenbachstraße 93 in Berlin-Kreuzberg and visits a nearby support center .

On the street, Rico meets Oskar, who is three years his junior. Oskar is afraid of almost everything and as a precaution wears a crash helmet whenever he leaves the house. In contrast to Rico, Oskar is gifted . The two dissimilar children become friends.

When Oskar does not show up for an appointment the next day, Rico is offended at first. In the evening he found out from the television, while he was with the neighbor Elke Dahling, where he watches a film almost every weekend, that Oskar had been kidnapped. Since Rico fears that an interrogation by the police could confuse him too much, he dares - although he is very afraid of getting lost - out of the familiar area for the first time to track down the perpetrator. When Rico thinks he has found the perpetrator, he tries to call the police, but is not taken seriously. Despite some false conclusions and the long time it takes to sort his thoughts, Rico turns out to be a clever and courageous investigator. He manages to find Oskar. The two boys can break free together.

Narrative style and design

The first-person narrator of the novel is Rico, who records his experiences in a vacation diary. The narrated time includes the first six days of Rico's summer vacation. The events are largely told chronologically, but with a few insertions and flashbacks that follow Rico's volatile thoughts. The language corresponds to Rico's horizon without being overly simplified. When the adult characters use difficult words, the eager to learn Rico looks them up in the dictionary and writes the explanation in his own words in his diary. So, Ricos vocabulary increases in the course of the book. Wherever he lacks words, Rico invents new ones, including the eponymous word creation "deep shadows" for the moving shadows in the apartment opposite, which scare Rico. Some details are aimed at an adult audience, for example the name of the homosexual neighbor Kiesling, which is a reference to the Kießling affair .

In the printed book, Rico's explanations of words are typographically separated from the narrative text by being reproduced as handwritten.

background

The figure Rico is based on Steinhöfel's late partner Gianni Vitiello , who, like Rico, was half-Italian and had an attention deficit disorder . Steinhöfel lived for a long time in the area where Rico in the book also lives.

Classification and reception

The professor of literary didactics Klaus Maiwald classifies the novel Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten , written in the style of a diary novel , as a “genre mixture of detective novel , picaresque novel , problem-oriented and comic children's novel”. Maiwald sees the novel's particular strengths in the narrator's creative word creations and explanations, as well as the plurality of characters, which Steinhöfel describes without any judgment. Maiwald notes that the film adaptation is more timid, for example by not showing that Mr. Kiesling, the neighbor who helps Rico with his explorations, is gay.

Reviews also praised the direct and original language full of word creations and the self-confidence of the main character. The crime story is exciting, but the real strength of the book is the unadorned, well-observed milieu study . Eva-Maria Magel called Rico a great storyteller: “He's a good storyteller. Oh what, he's a great storyteller! And a great observer who tells so precisely, so funny and sad and clever and warm-hearted about his life and his environment that you can't help but turn the page excitedly. "

The jury statement for the German Youth Literature Prize stated: “With the help of Rico's narrative voice, Steinhöfel succeeds in depicting a very special milieu that is neither discriminatory towards the characters, nor overprotective educational towards its young readers, but simply apt and loving. … Steinhöfel's language finally combines character representation and milieu portrayal in a modern social novel for children. In order to be able to tell from Rico's perspective, he creates a comprehensive and linguistically sophisticated vocabulary for his world perception. Without glossing over, Steinhöfel dives into Rico's inner and outer world, opens up a new cosmos that sets children's literary standards and thus presents a novel for children that leaves nothing to be desired in terms of figure drawing, plot design, linguistic design and statement. "

The portrayal of the main character Rico is also understood as a criticism of the educational system with its narrow definitions of talent and intelligence. It shows how wrong the concept of intellectual disability is, because Rico does not arouse pity, but joy in his unusual way of thinking.

Steinhöfel himself reported on the large amounts of mail from children with the most varied of backgrounds, who told him how much Rico spoke to them from their souls.

Rico, Oskar and the Deep Shadow is also used in school lessons. Various school book publishers have published suitable teaching materials.

Awards

Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten received several prizes, including the Corine Audience Award , the Lynx of the Month and the Owl of the Month . The most important award was the German Youth Literature Prize 2009, for which Steinhöfel had previously been nominated twice. The jury of the Erich Kästner Prize for Literature , which Steinhöfel received in 2009, also highlighted Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten . In 2010 the book was included in the international IBBY Honor List of the International Board on Books for Young People .

Steinhöfel was astonished about the award of the Catholic Children's and Youth Book Prize , as he had openly addressed homosexuality in his books and had therefore expected to be rejected by the Catholic Church . He decided to accept the award to open up opportunities for dialogue.

In 2008, the audio book read by Steinhöfel himself received the Children's and Young People's Audio Book of the Year award from Hessischer Rundfunk .

expenditure

Both the hardback ( ISBN 978-3-5515-5551-9 ) and the paperback ( ISBN 978-3-5513-1029-3 ) were published by Carlsen Verlag with illustrations by Peter Schössow .

In 2008 an audio book , read by the author, was published by Silberfisch Verlag ( ISBN 978-3-8674-2021-1 ).

Sequels

Andreas Steinhöfel has written three continuations of the novel so far. Originally, he had planned the series as a trilogy , which included the volumes Rico, Oskar and the Heartbreak , published in 2009, Rico, Oskar and the Theft Stone , published in 2011. For a series of animated films for the show with the mouse , Steinhöfel invented other children who form a gang with Rico and Oskar. In order to tell the background story of these children and to be able to develop their characters better than was possible in the short television sequences, Steinhöfel decided to write a fourth book. The Christmas story Rico, Oskar and Vomhimmelhoch was published in 2017. Steinhöfel is planning a fifth and final volume to conclude the story of the gang.

Accompanying the novels, Steinhöfel and the illustrator Peter Schössow wrote a comic series that tells additional adventures of Rico and Oskar. It is also published by Carlsen-Verlag and is recommended for ages 8 and up. So far, the volumes Fish from Silver (2017, ISBN 978-3-5515-5687-5 ), Die Regenhütte (2017, ISBN 978-3-5515-5693-6 ) and The Perfect Ass Bomb (2018, ISBN 978-3- 5515-5380-5 ).

Adaptations

theatre

A theater adaptation by Felicitas Loewe was premiered on October 10, 2009 in the Theater Junge Generation in Dresden under the direction of Philippe Besson . Since then, the play on stages all over Germany will be played, including the Theater Freiburg , the Theater Dortmund , in the Thalia Theater Halle , the Youth Theater Bonn and Atze Music Theater in Berlin.

radio play

A radio play adaptation directed by Judith Lorentz was published in 2010 ( ISBN 978-3-8674-2679-4 ).

Movie

The film Rico, Oskar and the Deep Shadows by Neele Vollmar was released in 2014. The two sequels were also filmed.

watch TV

Andreas Steinhöfel and the illustrator Peter Schössow designed a series of short animated films for the show with the mouse .

musical

In collaboration with the band Bananafishbones , Andreas Steinhöfel wrote the musical Bingo! Rico, Oskar and the deep shadows . It was published in 2014 as a picture book with CD ( ISBN 978-3-5512-7110-5 ).

literature

  • Andre Kagelmann: 'Merizontextensions'. Including potential for German lessons in Andreas Steinhöfel's children's novel Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten. In: Bettina Amrhein, Myrle Dziak-Mahler (ed.): Subject didactics inclusive. Looking for didactic guidelines for dealing with diversity in schools. Waxmann, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8309-3017-4 , pp. 249-264.
  • Eva Lipkowski, Liane Schüller: German lessons included. Practical examples in literature and language didactics on the subject of language, speaking and speaking restrictions. Waxmann, Münster 2019, ISBN 978-3-8309-4021-0 , pp. 194-219.
  • Klaus Maiwald: "... has what it takes to become a classic". Andreas Steinhöfel's children's crime thriller Rico, Oskar and the deep shadows and target areas of dealing with literature. In: Literature in Class. Contemporary literature texts for schools. Volume 15, No. 3, 2014, pp. 165-178.
  • Klaus Maiwald: Competitions and Correspondence. Films / adaptations for children and young people - using the example of Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten (2014). In: Bettina Bannasch , Eva Matthes (eds.): Children's and youth literature: historical, narrative and media-theoretical, educational and therapeutic perspectives. Waxmann, Münster / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-8309-3822-4 , pp. 153-160.
  • Gabriela Scherer: Stumbling over puzzle pieces. Literary and linguistic learning with Andreas Steinhöfel's children's crime novel Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten. In: Praxis Deutsch. No. 37, 2010, pp. 28-34.
  • Kristina Schubert, Barbara Schubert-Felmy: Rico, Oskar and the deep shadows by Andreas Steinhöfel. In: Petra Josting, Ricarda Dreier (Hrsg.): Reading feed for young and old. Children's and young people's literature after 2000 and literary learning in media-integrated German lessons. kopaed, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8673-6182-8 , pp. 79-91.
  • Markus Schwahl: “Disabled. But only in the head and only sometimes. ”Alterity and identity in Andreas Steinhofel's Rico and Oscar novels. In: German lessons. No. 62, 3, 2010, pp. 80-84.
  • Anna Emilia Urban: Clean Reads for Teens? Purification Strategy in Andreas Steinhöfel's Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten in the Chicken House's Edition. In: Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel, Elżbieta Szymańska-Czaplak (eds.): Language in Cognition and Affect. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-6423-5304-8 , pp. 17–31.
  • Andreas Wicke: “For a long time I didn't like Sherlock Holmes as much as Miss Marple”. Intertextual traces in Andreas Steinhöfel's "Rico, Oskar ..." thrillers . In: Volkacher Bote. Bulletin of the German Academy for Children's and Youth Literature in Volkach am Main. No. 98, 2013, pp. 19-30.
  • Andreas Wicke: "Times change, people change, opinions change". Family in Andreas Steinhöfel's Rico, Oskar ... trilogy. In: interjuli . 2012, No. 2, pp. 39–58.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas Steinhöfel in an interview with Rainer Hörmann for the Siegessäule magazine (October 2009), accessed on July 30, 2016.
  2. ^ Mareike Nieberding: Friends for reading. In: Der Spiegel . June 30, 2014, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b Andreas Steinhöfel - press kit from Carlsen Verlag (PDF), accessed on July 31, 2016.
  4. ^ Klaus Maiwald: Competitions and correspondence. Films / adaptations for children and young people - using the example of Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten (2014). In: Bettina Bannasch , Eva Matthes (eds.): Children's and youth literature: historical, narrative and media-theoretical, educational and therapeutic perspectives. Waxmann, Münster / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-8309-3822-4 , pp. 153–154.
  5. ↑ Hilde Elisabeth Menzel: Gifted and gifted. In: The time . March 20, 2008, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  6. ↑ a b Anja Knabenhans : Bingo balls in the head. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 3, 2008, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  7. ^ A b c Eva-Maria Magel: A pasta found for all of Berlin. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 26, 2008, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Siggi Seuss: The very special fragrance. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . March 7, 2008, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  9. ↑ a b German Youth Literature Award 2009
  10. ↑ On the “special bliss” of hearing. In: Börsenblatt for the German book trade . January 26, 2009, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Dirk von Nayhau: Questions to Life - Andreas Steinhöfel: Depression is when all your feelings are in a wheelchair ... In: chrismon . May 2015, accessed July 31, 2016 .
  12. ↑ example of Kerstin Haack ( ISBN 978-3-9817-5130-7 ), from Martin Euringer ( ISBN 978-3-8676-0754-4 the im) or Klett Verlag published teaching aid of the series "deutsch.kompetent" ( ISBN 978 -3-1231-6194-0 ).
  13. ↑ The Corine 2008 | Award winners
  14. ↑ Erich Kästner Prize for Literature 2009 ( Memento of the original from July 31, 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. , accessed July 31, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.erichkaestnergesellschaft.de
  15. ↑ IBBY Honor List 2010 ( Memento of the original from July 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 31, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ibby.org
  16. ↑ Press release of the Hessischer Rundfunk from November 27, 2008, accessed on July 31, 2016.
  17. ↑ Karin Großmann: It's okay not to be perfect. In: Saxon newspaper . November 24, 2017, accessed June 3, 2018 .
  18. ^ Rowohlt Theater Verlag , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  19. ^ Theater Freiburg , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  20. ^ Theater Dortmund , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  21. ^ Thalia Theater Halle , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  22. ↑ Junge Theater Bonn ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 8, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theaterportal.de
  23. ↑ Atze Musiktheater , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  24. ↑ Rico & Oskar animation in the show with the mouse on the website of the production company Studio Mitte , accessed on June 3, 2018.
  25. ↑ Bingo! on the website of Carlsen Verlag, accessed on August 4, 2016.