German / Germany
Füchse lügen nicht
(Foxes don’t lie)
Hub, Ulrich
(text)
Drewelow, Heike
(illus.)
Hamburg: Carlsen, 2014. – 144 p.
ISBN 978-3-551-55649-3
Airport | Lying | Animal story
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2014
Following Ulrich Hub’s bestselling “An der Arche um Acht” (2007; “Meet at the Ark at Eight”, 2012) this book is another terrific children’s novel with animal protagonists. The setting alone – the waiting area in an airport, more precisely the animal lounge – is unusual. It offers a platform for a wacky cast of characters and partly absurd happenings, especially when a fox suddenly walks in and stirs up the group. With sassy strokes, Heike Drewelow provides lively portraits of the illustrious herd of animals, while Ulrich Hub has an unfailing knack for comical language and situations as well as a wondrous talent for creating true characters. He plays with literary models, using the stock characters of a fable, for example, to undermine the readers’ expectations: Do foxes really lie or don’t they? Again and again, the text takes unexpected turns and elicits smiles and fits of laughter – all the more so when the book is read out loud.