Little Nini
World Rights:
Sold to Paperback (Baumhaus), Poland (Wydawnicza Foksal), Macedonia (Congress Service Centre), Korea (Catholic Publishing House).
Hardcover:
Thiele Verlag Spring 2014 (240 pages).
Sophie Scherrer’s book Little Nini is written from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl of the twenty-first century. Nini is, in the truest sense of the word, a child of our times. The only daughter of a single-parent mother who is anxious about whether a pet is a good thing for the child of a broken home and in moments of weakness allows her argumentative child to drink cola or watch yet another children’s TV programme.
Nini expresses the simple truths that adults are unable to see for the trees. She scares off Daddy’s new girl-friend whose spoilt daughter gets on her nerves. She sometimes secretly wishes that the relationship between her parents could have a happy ending, while still brazenly exploiting the advantages of having two separate homes. She also thinks that the man Mummy goes out with on the occasions the baby sitter has time is actually quite a nice guy.
So Nini adapts to events, grabs events by the forelock and goes her own way. She has incredible adventures – every day is full of them – and a lot of people who wish her well. She has a lot of ideas and a few secrets. Little Nini is someone you just have to take to your heart. With the untrammeled gaze of childhood she observes life today with all its inconsistencies, allowing the reader an insight into the depths of her optimistic child’s soul.
Refreshing, unaffected and extremely funny – a book (which can also be read aloud) for children from eight to eighty. For readers of Young Nicholas.