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No understanding for the cancellation of the award: the writer Kirsten Boie
Photo: Markus Scholz / picture alliance / dpa
222 German authors of books for children and young people have signed an open letter that sharply criticizes the Permanent Council of the German Bishops' Conference.
The reason for this is his decision not to honor the work "Paper Piano" proposed for the Catholic Child and Youth Breaking Prize and not to award the prize at all this year.
The signatories include Kirsten Boie, Paul Maar and Isabel Abedi.
You write: "The rejection of the jury's decision indicates a lack of trust in those representatives of church institutions who work with young people, know their worlds and realities, their worries and hopes." to reconsider his decision.
What exactly does the Bishops' Conference take offense at?
The novel by Austrian Elisabeth Steinkellner, designed in the form of a diary and provided with many illustrations, is about 16-year-old Maia. She commutes between school, part-time job and the role of surrogate mother for her siblings and struggles with constant financial difficulties and puberty. The three children come from different fathers, a friend of Maia is transgender, and of course sexual experimentation is also part of their world.
It is not known whether the Permanent Council, which is made up of bishops and auxiliary bishops, took offense at these accounts.
He gave an extremely brief explanation of his decision not to award the selected book.
The spokesman for the German Bishops' Conference, Matthias Kopp, simply said: "The Permanent Council was of the opinion that the proposed price book did not meet the criteria of the statutes of the Catholic Children's and Youth Book Prize."
"Paper piano" was selected by a ten-member jury, which includes literary scholars and pedagogues as well as theologians.
The Permanent Council must, however, approve the decision.
After the refusal, the jury did not want to resign, but also refused to suggest another book.
Also deleted from the recommendation list
Kirsten Boie, the author of children's and young adult books, told Deutschlandfunk that she did not dare to imagine how well the members of the Permanent Council were familiar with the realities of life for young people: “If you want to define the Christian way of life in a very narrow way, then the German Bishops' Conference is dwarfed this price, which has been relatively prestigious so far. "
On the homepage of the Catholic Children's and Young People's Book Prize there is no reference or justification to the cancellation of this year's edition.
How serious the Permanent Council is with its rejection of »paper piano« is shown by the list of recommendations with the best titles of the year 2021: the novel was also erased from there.
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