Book tips for the summer of 2022
5 books to keep teens busy on vacation
© liderina / Adobe Stock
The summer can come! The BRIGITTE editorial team chose their favorite children’s books. Is there anything for your kids?
Lise Villadsen – Something like summer, something like happiness
Everything could be so beautiful: The holidays are just around the corner, Astrid is falling in love and soon she wants to go on an Interrail tour. But how can you be happy when your sister’s life is “fucked up”? Because Cecilie, who was supposed to do her Abitur, has an anxiety disorder that not only determines her own life, but that of the whole family. When Cecilie sends her a call for help on her cell phone that she is once again stuck in the school toilet with a panic attack, it is Astrid immediately, but sometimes she is just angry at the sister who is so dependent on her. In her first novel, which is also published by us, the Danish author Lise Villadsen, born in 1985, addresses a topic that is often overlooked: namely the Siblings of people with mental illness. An estimated two thirds of them also suffer from psychological problems, because the balancing act between the feeling of responsibility and the desire for freedom is a constant burden for them. Reading about it is sometimes oppressive and definitely very impressive.
Ü: Meike Blatzheim, 256 p., 18 euros, Oetinger, from 14
Corinna C. Poetter – Jukli or how I had a little donkey on my cheek and couldn’t get rid of it
Flora doesn’t get along well, neither with her classmates nor with animals. But then she meets Mamou, a Romni (Roma woman), and goes to one for her donkey festival to France and at the same time surpasses himself.
208 p., 15 euros, Magellan, from 10
Wolfram Hänel – Here comes Pupsermän
There is a phase when jokes about farting are the biggest hoots – that is, for children, parents usually don’t find it that funny. But the story of Jacob, who farts stag beetles out of puddles and hedgehogs across the street, is for everyone great fun and great for reading and laughing over and over again.
I: Meike Töpperwien, 88 p., 12 euros, Penguin Junior, from 4
Sabine Ludwig – Adelheid of all people!
And another one Outsider, namely Adelheid: She is repeating the third grade because “she still needs some time”, as her teacher said. Together with Benni, who “can only do nonsense”, Adelheid slips from one mess to the next. And that’s just wonderfully weird and funny.
I: Barbara Jung, 192 pages, 12 euros, cbj, from 8
Hedi Fried – The Story of Bodri
The author was born in 1924 and survived the concentration camps in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen together with her younger sister. It’s not easy, to talk to children about the Holocaustbut with this painfully beautifully illustrated book a common approach can succeed.
I: Stina Wirsén, Ü: Christina Tüschen, 40 p., 15 euros, Bohem, from 8