239
Book · 2006
Königin Gisela
A girl named Gisela sets out alone on a sea voyage, is shipwrecked on an island, and declares herself queen over its meerkats. Her increasingly imperious demands turn the fantasy into a darkly comic cautionary tale.
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In Heidelbach's extraordinary picture book, a psychological family story and an exemplary tale of subjugation overlap. Whether in the microcosm of the family or within the communities of broader social orders, rivalry and omnipotence fantasies are frequently responsible for the breakdown of relationships.
Claudia Rouvel on Der Rote Elefant Nikolaus Heidelbach's cartoon-like illustrations are naive, detailed, and witty. The members of the meerkat family in particular exude an incredible sense of comedy: one meerkat sings French chansons with a matching bedroom gaze into its microphone—pardon me, the tip of its tail. The large panoramic illustrations of the framing narrative, on the other hand, are muted; the dark green sea with its weathered gray chalk mountains appears far from cozy to the viewer.
Verena Dorbach on Lesebar Impressively, he stages an opulently crafted realm of otherness, an overwhelming landscape scenery that, for all its exoticism, still sends a shiver down the viewer's spine. Psychologically finely balanced and thrillingly ambiguous, this masterful text-image composition ultimately permits multiple answers to the question of whether the story ends well.
Kritikerjury des Deutschen Jugendliteraturpreises on Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur
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