German-Icelandic collaboration wins Children's Book Award
The children's book Frerk, du Zwerg! written by Finn-Ole Heinrich and illustrated by Icelander Rán Flygering, receives the German Children's Literature Award for 2012. The award was presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
“The experience was overwhelming. Naturally, we were both surprised and happy,” says says Rán Flygering, who accepted the prize in Germany along with Finn-Ole.“The ceremony was followed by a twenty-four surreal hours of media maelstrom, during which we were dragged from one place to another for discussions and interviews, photo shoots and signings. To me it was a pretty momentous experience.”
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Audacious illustrations
The German Children's Literature Award has been annually awarded since 1956, and is one of the country's most prestigious children's literature awards. The jury, which consists of critics and literary scholars, gives out awards in four categories: picture books, children's books, books for young adults and nonfiction. Frerk, du Zwerg! won in the category of children's books.
In its statement, the jury said that in the book, prose, printing and illustrations worked especially well together. Rán Flygering is praised for the book's audacious illustrations, which it felt chimed well with the story's central message of anarchy, courage and confidence.
The story is about a boy named Frerk, who on account of his puny size and strength is an outsider at school. As the jeers rain over him in the outside world, Frerk's mind conjures up wild ideas, marvelous new words and, more often than not, a recurring dream of owning a enormous wild dog. One day, Frerk comes across a strange-looking egg, and once it hatches in his pocket a few days later, his life is turned on its head.
Finn-Ole Heinrich was one of three young German artists who took part in the stage production We Survived Eyjafjallajökull, which Sagenhaftes Island presented around the German-speaking countries in the buildup to the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011. He was also a visiting author of Reykjavík, City of Literature and the Goethe Institute in 2012, an occasion he seized upon to further collaborate with Rán Flygering.