The stories of the robber Hotzenplotz are classic children's books.
But can young readers be expected to read the story of a real robber?
Fürstenfeldbruck / Jexhof -
especially if it doesn't have a happy ending?
The Bruck author Elisabeth Lang has prepared the heavy material about the robber Kneißl for children.
She told the daily newspaper what was important.
"You have to think into the reader's perspective and be on an equal footing," says Elisabeth Lang.
Since the 55-year-old has three children herself, it was not difficult for her, even if “Kneißl, the robber with yellow shoes” (published in the Jexhof series, with illustrations by Ruth Strähhuber) is the author's first children's book.
Refrained from details
The life story of the bandit and folk hero, who was born in 1875, has it all. Kneißl shot dead two police officers during a chase and was guillotined when he was only 26 years old. Lang could not omit these two aspects, but others could. "You shouldn't go into too much detail, but you shouldn't get imprecise either," she describes the balancing act when writing. She reports that Kneißl grew up with three sisters and one brother - but not that his parents had six other children, all of whom died in infancy. "These are things I don't have to tell children."
The freelancer, who works in the education and cultural sector, is convinced: “If you try to write age-appropriate, you can also expose children to difficult topics.” Furthermore: “There are six-year-olds who watch Harry Potter.
And that's where things really get down to business. "
At least eight years old
Lang is convinced that readers should be at least eight years old for the Kneißl book.
To see if she had hit the right note, she read the manuscript to some of the neighborhood children and asked her 20-year-old daughter to observe the reactions.
Conclusion: The children behaved very differently.
Some were spellbound by the exciting story, others rather put off.
The author believes that the parents are best able to assess whether the reading is suitable in a given case or not.
It was also important to her to offer young readers starting points for further thinking - and for their imagination.
And so she closes the book with questions: Would everything have turned out differently if young Kneißl had been taken out of his criminal home?
What if the family had been looked after more?
What if he had found a permanent job?
Or if he had known his contemporary Ferdinand Porsche and raced off with him in one of his cars?
