German / Germany
Der Sternsee
(The star lake)
Gmehling, Will
(text)
Rassmus, Jens
(illus.)
Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, [2025]. – 52 p.
ISBN 978-3-7795-0766-6
Friendship | Summer | Lake | Ice | Skyscraper
Reading age: 10+
White Ravens issue: 2026
»Something like this has never happened before.« The star lake, where the narrator and Mo, Sissi, and Anastasia live – so called because it looks like a star when viewed from the tower block – is frozen over. It feels almost magical there now: the light, the silence. And it remains magical. For when spring arrives, the ice does not melt. Even during the summer heatwave, the lake remains covered in ice. Naturally, it has become a huge attraction; people from far and wide gather to gaze at it in wonder, study it scientifically, and put forward various theories. Still, the phenomenon remains a mystery. Yet, for the four friends, this »unprecedented and shocking event« has become part of their daily life by now – until, one night, when the ice eventually begins to thaw. Will Gmehling and Jens Rassmus have crafted a carefully composed jewel that describes how the inexplicable intrudes upon everyday life. Full of poetry that permeates both the text and the illustrations in black-white-and-blue, this book makes you marvel and ponder. [IG]