Czech / Czech Republic
Hledá se hvězda
(Looking for a star)
Brodecká, Lenka
(text)
Ščerbová, Tereza
(illus.)
Brno: Host, 2015. – 226 p.
ISBN 978-80-7491-495-9
Kingdom | Intrigue | Good | Evil | Fairy tale
Reading age: 10+
White Ravens issue: 2016
In this children’s book, Lenka Brodecká (b.1972) admirably demonstrates how a fairy-tale setting with princesses, king and jester can provide the ingredients for a rapidly paced and quite modern detective story. A Magic Stone that protects a kingdom from evil has disappeared, and now chaos and ruin threaten. Only the two child protagonists, the princess and the court jester, can save the land by going to find the stone. The best thing about this book are its totally unexpected plot twists. They keep even experienced readers in the dark concerning who is really playing which role, whose interests are really being pursued and who is on the side of good and who on the side of bad. The illustrations by Tereza Ščerbová (b. 1982) seem at once antiquated and modern, nicely mirroring the story’s style: a clever play on a supposedly familiar plot using a novel language that gives the book a genuine freshness.