Jürg Schubiger

One Thousand Follies

Anja Picture Books ,

by Eva Muggenthaler & Jürg Schubiger tausend-dummheiten

Magnificent Story Between Heaven and Hell

When Luci joins the class, it quickly becomes apparent that he is no child like the others. The little horn peaks on his head and his hoof leave little room for doubt: Luci is a young devil straight from hell.

Devils, even little ones, can do things others are incapable of. The class is mesmerised when Luci lights the teacher’s cigarette without matches, with no more than a flick of his long-clawed fingers!

But how did he end up here, where he is constantly plagued by home sickness? Luci has come for his apprenticeship. He is to instigate 1,000 follies and for each and every one he carves a groove into his hoof. Once he’s accomplished his task, he can return to hell. The children are ecstatic and cause all kinds of mischief.

But by the time more than 900 grooves have been gathered, many things have changed. The children want Luci to stay and do what they can in order to avoid new grooves from being carved. And even Luci, who adores the teacher, avoids some follies.

Only the home sickness tempts him to play one or two pranks. And so the thousandth groove slowly comes closer. A story that only Jürg Schubiger could narrate in this manner: so fine, so warm, so humorously and with a deeper meaning. Eva Muggenthaler’s fantastic images have carried it even further!

  • One of the 7 Best Books for Young Readers – October 2016

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 198 x 286 mm | July 2016 | 6+

All rights available

[original German title: Tausend Dummheiten]

SAMPLE PAGES

 

In Memory of Jürg Schubiger

Anja News

SchubigerWe are deeply saddened by the loss of Jürg Schubiger, who died at the age of 77 in Zurich on 15th September 2014. His wonderful stories and poems have greatly enriched the publishing programme of Peter Hammer Verlag for many years.

Jürg Schubiger wrote both for children and adults and received numerous important awards for his books. His literary work for children was awarded with the Hans-Christian-Andersen Prize in 2008; the so-called ‘Nobel Prize for Children’s Literature’.

And Again … Something Else!

Anja Wolf Erlbruch's Books ,

by Wolf Erlbruch & Jürg Schubiger  Schon wieder was 1

What is this? That’s how a curious person asks and he asks from morning till nighttime, so that he will be wiser. What is this?

A fairy, a shrew mouse, a wart hog, a doll munching beast. That’s how someone, who has already seen more of the world, would answer without hesitation. But as he doesn’t by all means know everything, he needs to invent something from time to time. And he does so surprisingly well.

Jürg Schubiger has put together questions and answers; subtle and mischievous. Wolf Erlbruch illustrates – with visible delight—those little pieces of the world that prompt the questions asked: a fairy, a shrew mouse, a wart hog, a doll munching beast.

Erlbruch and Schubiger – birds of a feather that complement each other perfectly: one provides the word, the other counters with an image – Brigitte Jakobeit, Die Zeit

  • One of the 7 Best Books for Young Readers—July 2014

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 200 x 270 mm | 2014 | 4+

Rights sold: Spanish

[original title: Schon wieder was]

Merken

The Child in the Moon

Anja Award-winners, Picture Books

by Aljoscha Blau & Jürg Schubiger  Kind im Mond2

The moon – near yet unreachable – captivates our gaze and focuses our desires. But who would have thought that it is just the same the other way round? That there is a man, his wife and a child in the Moon, looking down to Earth and yearning just the same? This is what it is like in this story by Jürg Schubiger, who has quite a lot to tell about the people up there, even if he is wondering about a few things himself. We learn what the family in the Moon has for breakfast and how they ‘watch television’ in the evenings by looking at the bright blue planet. The woman in the Moon knows about a lot of things: sausages and fresh bread, black forest cake and snowmen. “Heaven only knows how she knew all of this.” The child in the Moon gradually develops a great longing for Earth. And then comes a day when it simply takes off …. Aljoscha Blau’s magnificent illustrations show us what it looks like on the Moon. He immerses the strangely quiet moon life in a white light and thus gives it an unearthly enchantment. One of the miracles to be found on the Moon is made tangible in a sensational manner: it is a raven with gleaming feathers that flies past with hardly a stroke of its wings, the blue planet far behind it in the black sky. “Heaven only knows where the bird came from”, the narrator wonders. And we marvel at the force of these images that shift freely between dream and reality.

  • Winner of the Pied Piper Literature Award 2014
  • Selected as one of the “7 Best Books for Children”

Peter Hammer Verlag | picture book | hc | 24 pp | 240 x 290 mm | Feb 2013 | 5+

Rights sold: Chinese (simplified)

[original title: Das Kind im Mond]

The White and the Black Bear

Anja Award-winners, Picture Books ,

by Eva Muggenthaler & Jürg Schubiger    8f0b0d1758

The little girl is lying in her bed, her eyes wide open. The night is black and you can get lost in the dark room like in a dark forest. But thank God, there is the white bear! He is sitting at the little girl’s bedside every night, slightly shimmering in the darkness. One day the white bear is gone and it is pitch-dark. the girl thinks: “IF there is still a bear sitting beside my bed it must be a black one.” And indeed: she can hear a moist nose snuffling.

A wonderfully written book about the power of imagination, remarkably illustrated with countless details.

Link to the Litrix Website with detailed description and English translation

  • Owl of the Month
  • One of the 7 Best Children’s Books
  • Nominated for the German Children’s Literature Award

Peter Hammer Verlag | picture books | hc | 32 pp | 24 x 28 cm | 2007 | 4+

Rights sold: Chinese (simplified), Korean, Spanish

[original title: Der weiße und der schwarze Bär]

When Death Came Calling

Anja Award-winners, Picture Books , ,

by Rotraut Susanne Berner & Jürg Schubiger  Als der Tod

Jürg Schubiger and Rotraut Susanne Berner tell the story of a village somewhere back in time when death was still completely unknown. Nobody had ever encountered him and everything that existed remained safe and sound.

But then one day death walks into the village and from that very moment everything changes fundamentally.

Jürg Schubiger’s finespun words and Rotraut Susanne Berner’s clear, significant pictures show in an ingenious and touching manner how death brings grief and sorrow into the world but at the same time compassion, care and consolation.

  • German Design Award 2014 – ‘Special Mention’
  • Awarded as One of the Most Beautiful German Books 2012
  • White Raven 2012
  • LesePeter 2011

Link to LITRIX (detailed description & sample translation)

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 25 x 21.5 cm | 2011 | 5+

Rights sold: Chinese (simplified & complex), French, Spanish

[original title: Als der Tod zu uns kam]

 

Two in Love

Anja Wolf Erlbruch's Books ,

by Wolf Erlbruch & Jürg Schubiger  Zwei die sich lieben

It is difficult to say what love is. But this much is clear: it is something to do with kissing or so.

Two in Love is a little gift book for all those who contemplate love. Wondering who wants to kiss whom and who may or even should do so. Wondering about the before and after. The longing, finding, enjoyment and saying goodbye.

Wolf Erlbruch has always been interested in these things and now delights us with many pictures of marvellous couples. Jürg Schubiger now has – to his apparent enjoyment – found verses to accompany Erlbruch’s pictures. Together they convey a very optimistic view: overall, love is beautiful rather than difficult. And so is kissing anyway.

The German original edition is already into its fifth edition!

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc with half-cloth binding| 48 pp | 16 x 21 cm | Feb 2012

Rights sold: Chinese (complex & simplified), French, Frisian, Italian, Korean, Spanish

[original title: Zwei, die sich lieben]

Merken