Notes:
-click the arrows to see what the format is like
-the review contains minor spoilers, you'll see them as plain text if you quote the post.
Book: Yvonne Hergane - The Missing Drum/Die verschwundene Trommel
Challenges: Dread&Read, Mount TBR, Diversity challenge (disappointing), European Reading Challenge (Germany - takes place on Fehmarn island)
Purchase details: Had to double-check. I thought I had bought this in 2015 along with a few other books in German... Turns out I ordered it back in 2012 via European Bookshop, while I was buying HP5 in Portuguese. I probably expected to read this during the original Super Challenge
I might have forgotten about it later because it wasn't available on Goodreads (I added it to the database in 2015)
This book has been to Rovaniemi with me, but I hardly read anything there.
Language learner's/geek's notes: Well, this wasn't what I expected at all. I thought this was a parallel text and expected to breeze through it. Instead it was a book in a weird format supposed to help German kids learn English.
On the other hand, this was also something I long wanted to see. A book where the dialogue is written in the language it took place in. There are some lines in Jamaican patois, some individual words in Spanish explained in the text. No lines in Dhivehi, it's translated/summarized.
I don't think the format is particularly useful for German kids, though of course more useful than just reading a story in German. Many English words are translated in the footnotes, including cognates and some really basic words. The choice of words picked for the footnotes isn't great at all.
Representation notes: That's probably the first time I'm saying it, but the multiculturalism did feel a bit forced, despite being well-researched and having valid plot reasons. Maybe the explanations feel too formal. Also, the way the theme of superstitions was handled is disappointing.
I didn't particularly like the main character, who's a teenage boy. He seems to be intentionally imperfect though. Most people he finds annoying turn out better than he thinks.
And he does save the day alongside them.There's also some heteronormative bs, but not exactly dating/romance. 8/10 in this regard.
The book ends with a boring misogynistic trope: it's clear that the boy and girl are going to end up together, but he half-jokingly regrets that she wants to join him on their next holiday when they visit their new friends together. The girl either has some internalized sexism or deliberately flatters the guy.
If you believe that ACAB,
you'll find the climax disappointing.
On a random note, one of the characters is called Kawani and I kept picturing someone who looks like Edinson Cavani
But it's supposed to be a girl. BTW, their group of friends ends up being 3 girls and 4 boys. That's kinda symbolic to me. Overall, the book does reach the bare minimum of my expectations, but hardly goes past that.
Other: The plot was slow in the beginning but closer to the end I couldn't put the book down.
And then the book ends with a scene of a horse foaling
Totally unexpected but useful for my German vocabulary
I'm not interested in reading anything else by this author. However, she's also translated some books into German - should be good quality.