World tour on Midsummer Night

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

World Tour on Midsummer Night is a children's book by the writer Richard Katz, first published in Switzerland in 1953 . He wrote the book in Alto da Boa Vista, Brazil (now a district of Rio de Janeiro ), where he emigrated in 1941 because of his Jewish origins.

action

The imaginative Mariechen and the practical Heini are friends, despite their differences. On Midsummer Eve, the two children visit an old man called "Steinalter" who lives in an abandoned castle near their village. The stone old man, who describes himself as “spirit”, shows them the so-called “dream window” and reveals that every 100 years it fulfills wishes when the full moon, Midsummer night and a clear sky meet, and that today is such a night.

Heini wishes to travel to India because at a boy scout meeting he met an Indian boy whom he would like to visit. For the trip, Mariechen's doll Selma and Heini's camera, who calls herself Kaspar, are brought to life. They fly off under the old stone's cloak. On the way, the old stone explains to the children the landscapes and countries they fly over, explains customs and traditions, tells fairy tales and fables and teaches them that one should not measure the foreign with one's own yardstick.

The stone old man and the children make a first stop in an Egyptian oasis , and the children discover that they understand foreign languages ​​by magic. The old stone saves a caravan from an attack. After landing in Sudan , they fly further south and watch herds of animals in the savannah . During a discussion about the meaning of machines, the old stone complained that people were gripped by an “addiction to photography”. Over the Indian Ocean , they watch the rescue of people from a junk , in which the old stone once again has a hand in it. In Ceylon they see elephants being captured and in Kandy they visit a Buddhist temple.

Finally, the travelers reach India, where the stone old tells the children what a harmful influence the opium grown by the British in India had on the people of China. They find Nada, Heini's friend, who lives in Jaipur and is the son of the local finance minister, and they meet the maharajah . Heini confuses the lackey , who is covered in gold, with the Maharajah, who wears a simple European suit. Then Nada shows them the Maharaja's menagerie with cheetahs and monkeys . The lead monkey steals Kaspar's camera and takes a photo; the old stone saves the camera. When saying goodbye to Heini, Nada bursts into tears (and the author suggests that the two boys will meet again 20 years later).

Over the Himalayas and Tibet the stone old flies with the children to China, where they see the poor life of the farmers. They rescue the girl Li, who is being persecuted by soldiers, take her under her coat and bring her to Hong Kong , where an uncle of Li lives. To say goodbye to China, they go to a restaurant and have a multi-course meal during which the children learn a lot about Chinese cuisine. The leftovers are given to them in parcels that they give away to poor people on the street.

The travelers under the cloak fly east and cross Latin America. The old stone tells the children about the cruel conquest of the continent by the Europeans. When he lands, Heini is spat on by an angry llama . In Rio de Janeiro they land on the Corcovado below the Christ statue and enjoy the view of the “fairytale city”, as Mariechen says. In New York they sit on a skyscraper , which they also admire from below. Selma is amazed that she hears the word “Dalla” so often, and the old stone explains to her that “dollar” is meant by it, “and since you speak what you think of, you hear the word so often”. While taking pictures, Heini falls on the street and almost causes an accident. A policeman arrives and arrests the old stone because he cannot show any papers. But the three of them can escape under the coat.

Finally, the old stone and the two children reach home again. When the children's parents come home from a St. John's celebration, they find Mariechen and Heini sleeping hand in hand on a bench. Sparks from the St. John's fire ignited the castle, which burned to the ground, and the old stone has disappeared. Selma and Kaspar (on whose film there are no photos) can no longer speak, but the children find that they have dreamed the same thing. Heini reminds Mariechen that the old stone has a friend in Rio de Janeiro who he wants to tell everything so that he can make a book out of it.

reception

In December 1954, Die Zeit recommended the book as a Christmas present for “boys and girls”: “[the book] spreads a wealth of knowledge about foreign countries in the framework of a fairy tale. The two children experience 'in flight' the very real wonders of the wide world. The older a child is, the more of this book they will get. But even a ten-year-old won't put it down. "

expenditure

The book has 351 pages. The illustrator Ingrid Schneider designed the cover.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For boys and girls: Christmas books. In: zeit.de . December 2, 1954, accessed June 3, 2020 .