“The school Gudrun Pausewang describes in this story is not like the schools we are used to seeing because, it doesn’t exist. However, most of us wish we had learnt how to tame monsters, how to recognize tracks, or we had learnt to do magic and to dream, in the way this book suggest.” (CLIJ, Children and Young Adults’ Literature Notebooks).

“A beautiful picture book” (Alfonso García on Diario de León).

“… This picture book should be read by everyone that has children on their care, wherever as a part of their family or in their profession. And, of course, it should be read by every child. (Biblioteca de los Elefantes).

The story is set in the nineties: Chernobyl nuclear accident is almost forgotten when, suddenly, a new, more serious accident happens, in Crafenrheinfeld, German Federal Republic. Authorities play it down but the terrified population tries to run away the disaster area. A savage war for survival takes place on the roads and streets. Surrounded by this war, there are Janna Berta, 14 years old, and her brother Uli, aged 7. Their parents have gone away to a journey for a few days. The children try to escape from danger using their bicycles…

German Young Adults’ Literature Prize

“The novel is hair-raising real. Chaos produced by people’s runaway, the way the girl is going through different situations, the death of her loved ones… all is magnificently developed, and translation is impeccable” (ABC).

 In coincidence with Fukushima nuclear accident, the Spanish newspaper El País set an interview with the author of this book, who said: “…(the book) takes seriously the readers, no matter their age” and “it is inspired by particular facts, which can take place, as it is demonstrated by Fukushima” (“The best seller which foresees Fukushima”, El País).

A story about a man, the grandfather, who, tired, full of aches and aged, decides to take his life. To do that, he would need the help of Pepito, his only grandson, who would take him to the cliff, on the top of the mountain. The way to the summit turns to be a meeting with many people in need of grandfather’s advices, experiences and wisdom.

Germany, at the end of the eighties: The State goes bust, the economy has gone bankrupt. The unemployment rates are rising day after day; hundreds of thousands of immigrants are waiting on the borders. Many of them bet for an easy solution: a man who is able to solve all problems and rescue Germany from the crisis. A new dictator. Gesa is 17 years old when that man assumes the power. He will quickly know how is to live in a dictatorship like.

In A Children’s Visit, Gudrun Pausewang introduces the underdeveloped world by using a middle aged German married couple enjoying their holidays in the company of her daughter, who is married to an important Latin-American businessman. The couple is enjoying the luxury and colours of a country whose language they do not understand and, because of several circumstances, they will end staying on their own in an opulent mansion for 48 hours…

In such a short time frame, after the woman invited a beggar girl to come in, the couple will discover not only their own meanness but also the weakness of their beliefs about poverty in the Third World… and finally they will be the victims of an indiscriminate violence coming, paradoxically, from those they expected the least: beggar children.

A thriller for young adults, with a great narrative rhythm and a nightmare ending.

When young Caldera goes down the mountain to the city, he is unusually lucky at first: he finds a job, a friend and a woman. Caldera family buys a house, they have children and life smiles at them. Their misfortune starts when the father, after a work-related accident, loses his job. Then they have to sell their house and move to a shack in the poorest neighborhood in the city. Finally, hunger leads the children to beg. But their father, Ramón Caldera, can not stand that. His pride does not allow him to accept living on alms due to the lost of a job. Desperately, he looks for a way out.