As of: February 28, 2024, 12:02 p.m
By: Sabine Lehmann
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Helga Maria Reichart is proud of her work.
It took three months from the first drawing to the finished book.
© Sabine Lehmann
Helga Maria Reichart (50) wants to explain leap years with her first children's book.
Together with the protagonist Benjamin Jahr, the readership looks for its place in the calendar months.
Sachsenried – Helga Maria Reichart sits relaxed in the café and sips her cappuccino.
The small braids in her blonde hair make the 50-year-old appear youthful, but it is also her friendly and open manner that puts a smile on the other person's face.
Nevertheless, the author, who grew up on a farm in Sachsenried and now lives in Kempten, is difficult to pin down.
She is the likeable woman next door, works in a down-to-earth job in a bank, and has two daughters, 13 and 19 years old, with her husband.
And yet Reichart lived out her artistic streak throughout her life.
At school she illustrates the school newspaper, in the village of Sachsenried she writes the hand-made speeches and at the bank she also leaves one or two drawings at work or supports marketing.
“Grandfather Time and the Leap Year”: Helga Maria Reichart publishes her first children’s book
At the boarding school in Kaufbeuren, Reichart majored in accounting.
But her passion is already noticeable there.
“The student has a talent for visual representation,” the certificate says.
She actually would have liked to study graphic design after school, but her father urged her to learn something “smart”.
So drawing remained her hobby.
A few years ago the moment came that changed everything.
“My husband gave me a course on book illustration and you had to come with a finished story.” The course was canceled because of Corona, but the idea continued to take shape and finally ended up with her old teacher, who had founded a publishing company.
“He would have told me even if it had been nothing,” says Reichart.
But Josef Bauer was thrilled.
“That’s how it all got rolling.” The book “Grandpa Time and the Leap Year” was created.
“For me, every picture has to have a gag, you always have to discover something new.”
The 50-year-old almost excitedly pulls a sketchpad out of her large bag.
“Everything is in here, from the first drawing to the last word,” she says proudly.
Watercolor with hard lines in a comic style, that's her thing.
Colorful and rich in detail, it's worth just looking at the loving drawings.
“For me, every picture has to have a gag, you always have to discover something new,” enthuses Reichart.
They were inspired by famous figures from real life, such as physicist Albert Einstein (Grandfather Time, former mathematics professor and watch lover) or model Jorge Gonzales, known from the TV show “Let's Dance” as Katharina Kastanie.
The main character is Benjamin Jahr, the youngest among 366 children.
Although Benjamin is still small, his father sends him away to find his destiny.
With a big grin and a huge scarf, the boy makes his way through the individual months.
It starts in March, where he meets three of his siblings.
All of Benjamin's brothers and sisters found their place in a month.
Everyone is happy about his visit.
But nobody really wants him.
The tasks are distributed, the houses are full.
So the little boy is sent from month to month.
Protagonist Benjamin becomes the guardian of time
Benjamin doesn't give up.
He repeatedly says the words: “I like it with you.
Do you have a task for me, am I needed here?” Until he arrives in February, hopeless and sad.
He is finally allowed to move into house number 29.
But he can't find a meaningful job, which is why he travels home to question his clever grandfather.
He has now lost himself in studies about time calculation and, together with his grandson, finally finds the solution as to how the calendar can match the movement of the earth again: every four years there is an additional day in February, which is then called a leap year.
Benjamin is now the guardian of time.
In the three years in between, he lived with his grandfather and helped him.
A happy ending after a journey that was almost unbearable for the reader.
Because he is constantly sent away, there is great pity for the little boy.
“A student once asked me at a reading why Benjamin’s siblings were so mean and why I didn’t write it differently,” says Reichart.
This question shocked her.
“I didn't even know what to say about that.” Benjamin's search for his place in the calendar year could certainly have been described in a more self-determined, positive way.
As the individual's search for the meaning of life, which he freely chooses, for example.
Instead of being sent around until someone takes him in every four years.
“But then it wouldn’t have been my book anymore,” says Reichart, shrugging his shoulders.
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Now the author goes from reading to reading.
“Often also in schools, because I think that you can teach children about leap years in a creative way with this book.” But Reichart’s work appeals not only to students, but also to adults.
Right at the beginning there is a factual treatise on time calculation.
500 copies have already been sold.
“I would be happy if people enjoyed it.
Because I’m sure that many people simply don’t know what a leap year actually is.”
You can buy
“Grandfather Time and the Leap Year” for 16 euros.
It was published by Bauer Verlag Thalhofen, www.verlag-bauer.de, ISBN 978-3-95551-150-0
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