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Der Zwerg im Kopf

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Kurz vor dem ersten Schultag hat ihn Anna entdeckt, den daumenfingernagelkleinen Zwerg mit der violetten Zipfelmütze. Unaufgefordert hat er sich in ihrem Kopf eingerichtet und mischt sich nun in alles ein. Was sich als äußerst praktisch erweist, da Anna mit ihm alle ihre Probleme besprechen kann. Davon hat sie reichlich, denn sie ist ein Scheidungskind und lebt beim Papa. Am Nachmittag ist die Mama für sie zuständig. Ganz schön kompliziert, aber noch komplizierter ist es in der Schule, weil Anna den Peter liebt, der Hermann aber die Anna. Da ist es nur gut, wenn so ein Zwerg ordnend eingreift!

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

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About the author

Christine Nöstlinger

499 books186 followers
Christine Nöstlinger was an Austrian writer best known for children's books.

By her own admission, Nöstlinger was a wild and angry child. After finishing high school, she wanted to become an artist, and studied graphic arts at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna. She worked as a graphic artist for a few years, before marrying a journalist, Ernst Nöstlinger, with whom she had two daughters.

The majority of Nöstlinger's production is literature for children and for young people, and she also writes for television, radio and newspapers. She centres on the needs of children in her work, with an anti-authoritarian bent. She does not shy away from tackling difficult subjects like racism, discrimination and self-isolation.

Her first book was Die feuerrote Friederike, published in 1970, which she illustrated herself. The book was published in English in 1975 as Fiery Frederica.

Awards and recognition:

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Youth Literature Prize) 1973, 1988
Friedrich Bödecker Prize 1972
Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis der Stadt Wien (Viennese Youth Literature Prize) (five-time winner)
Österreichischer Staatspreis für Kinder- und Jugendliteratur (Austrian Youth Literature Prize) 1974, 1979
Hans Christian Andersen Award 1984
Tolereis des österreichischen Buchhandels für Toleranz in Denken und Handeln 1998
Zürcher Kinderbuchpreis "La vache qui lit" (Zurich Youth Literature Prize) 1990
Erster Preis der Stiftung Buchkunst 1993
The inaugural Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation for Der Hund kommt! (English: A Dog's Life, translated by Anthea Bell) 1996
Wildweibchenpreis 2002
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2003

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5 stars
49 (34%)
4 stars
49 (34%)
3 stars
30 (20%)
2 stars
11 (7%)
1 star
4 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for Andi.
283 reviews
March 12, 2020
Anna hat einen Zwerg im Kopf, der mit ihr redet und ihr Ratschläge gibt - manchmal auch einfach nur blöde Kommentare schiebt.

Meiner Meinung nach ein sehr süßes Kinderbuch. Von den drei Nöstlingers die ich jetzt gelesen habe (der geheime Großvater, die Lumpenloretta, der Zwerg im Kopf) hat mir dieses eindeutig am Besten gefallen, vor allem weil es eine schöne Geschichte hat und ein wirklich nettes Ende. Es hat sogar eine kleine Moral: Spiel nicht mit den Gefühlen der anderen herum, das macht nur Chaos und macht auch für dich alles komplizierter.

Hat mir auf jeden Fall gut gefallen.
Profile Image for Elitsa.
7 reviews
May 29, 2022
A very funny but unusual read. It gave this strange vibe that felt like a mixture of rage, sadness and humour. It made me slightly wish that I had an elf in my head.
(Reader, 10 yr old)
Profile Image for Asta Valiukoniene.
33 reviews1 follower
October 3, 2022
Mums vakaro skaitiniams nepatiko, padėjome nepabaigę su vaiku. Skaitysime kitą knygą.
1,446 reviews12 followers
June 13, 2016
A first outting into the work of Christine Nöstlinger and, this being a lesser known story, a mouthwatering appetiser for her more well regarded stories. Young Anna one day manages to get a tiny dwarf stuck inside her head (she put him close to her ear to hear him properly and he slipped in) who is excellent company and doles out good and bad advice in equal measure. After the dwarf's plan to fix the inner cranial workings of her irritating school desk partner goes too far and the poor boy falls in love with Anna, she is left torn between her friendships, both human and dwarvish, and her conscience.

Nöstlinger writes her fantasy elements with droll humour and matter-of-factness. You could almost read the story without the dwarf as a simple love/friendship triangle, the perils of childhood friendships. She doesn't glamorise, dramatise or ridicule the dwarf in the story. He simply is. Around this no-nonsense structure is a story of touching realism - Anna's parents are divorced and she is juggled between them. The grandparents hate each other and always rule her Christmas. Her mother is an often absent stage actress and has a few annoying friends whom Anna has to put up with when they take care of her. Anna is a brilliantly strong character and her will and resolve are strengthened by the presence of her outspoken little dwarf. He causes her problems but he also gives her the words and the confidence she needs to make a stand between her arguing parents. She represents well the extent that children understand their parent's disagreements and are affected by them. The parents highlight adults' often careless disregard of a child's awareness and personality.

Nöstlinger writes in a simplistic style. What humour she finds is through the situations she presents and not through clever wordplays and jokes. The descriptions are bare and yet the characters are wirey strong and real. She manages to be very accesible and very intelligent at the same time, to not talk down or up to children. It's a clever balance, like the difficult balance and the misunderstandings between the world of adults and children, but she achieves it with graceful, simple ease. Without creating great drama, drawing children in with fantastical imagery or offering them fast-paced action scenes or reel after reel of jokes, Nöstlinger writes addictive, emotional prose about perfectly drawn characters, with just a twist of "Dwarf-in-your-head" fantasy to get children's imaginations rolling. 7
Profile Image for Barbara Tsipouras.
Author 1 book38 followers
February 21, 2017
Die Nöstlinger schreibt einfach köstlich.
Sie schreibt wie Kinder denken. Und das ist auch für Erwachsene das reinste Vergnügen.
Profile Image for Emilis Kuke.
97 reviews32 followers
November 28, 2015
Miela ir iki skausmo nuoširdi knygutė apie tėvų skyrybas ir sumaištį vaiko galvoje. Manau mūsų kultūriniame socialiniame kontekste knyga galėtų geriau padėti suvokti savo ir aplinkinių jausmus, savo ir tėvų atsakomybę. Kartais galvoju, kad pas mus visus galvoje gyvena po panašų į pagrindinės herojės, 7 metės Anos galvoje gyvenantį nykštuką, tik ne visada mums pavyksta įsiklausyti į jį.
Nepaisant to, kad knygoje buvo viena kita slidesnė vieta - knyga verta dėmesio, ir maloniai skaitosi. Ne kartą prunkštelėjau iš juoko ar nuliūdau kartu su Ana. :-)
Rekomenduoju.

P.S. Žemiau pateikiu nuorodą į šios knygos ištraukų audio įrašą, kurį skaito aktorė:
http://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/10...
56 reviews15 followers
December 26, 2013
What a fantastic book - innocent, humorous and thought provoking.

An allegorical interpretation of "a little voice in me said..."

Maybe the dwarf sits in us all ... have you heard from him lately?
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews