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Illustrations by Klaus Steffens
Bookbinding: paperback
Size: 13.5 x 21 cms
ISBN: 978-84-89804-58-6
PRICE VAT INCLUDED: 9.01 €
Leena and her family move to violet house. “It seems to me that violet is such a mysterious colour”, she thinks.
Her first year living in the new house will be a difficult time, but also a beautiful time, full of secrets. She meets Birgit, her neighbor, who stutters when she feels blue or self conscious. But Leena gets along with her, until Birgit tells her a secret that will test their friendship.
“Lembcke gently slides her pen to write without any abruptness, but in a well balanced way indeed, this novel about growing up, about discovering your own identity, about embracing the fight between good and evil… A young adults’ novel carefully made that will allow many teenagers to identify themselves with the main character, who is full of naturalness” (Canal Lector).
At the circus everyone has a stage name. Everyone but Pele. He can’t even perform juggler tricks or magic shows. It seems that he will never be able to learn anything because he is short and fat, and he always thinks too slowly. Only once, he says “abracadabra, Son”. And he says it straight through and just in the precise moment. And then, a miracle takes place.
Juhani’s friends think it is weird that he is always looking for a Harley Davidson. But that is because his father, a tango singer, went away to Africa, riding one of those motorbikes, four years ago.
One day, Juhani, who is already thirteen years old, finds a Harley in a near neighbourhood. He expects his father is back, but, again, he is wrong.
Luckily, there is Milja, the blue eyes and fair hair girl, the one he falls in love with. He will enjoy a summer holiday with her, living at his dreamed house, on the lake shore. When his memories of his father start to vanish, he unexpectedly comes to life.
That summer, everyone Leena meets is in love: Her brother Matti, her best friend, the cook at the kindergarten, her mother… but what about Leena? She feels weird when she is close to the boy who is new in the class. Although she refuses to admit two things: that she is becoming an adult woman and she is falling in love.
Marjaleena Lembcke, like she did with her last book, When the stones were still birds, offers a novel written in bland colours, about emotional troubles, that make reading it specially enjoyable.
Pekka is a really special boy. His parents and brothers love him very much and he loves them back as well. But Pekka not only loves his parents and brothers, but he loves everybody and everything: the chair he sits on, the bed, the forest, her mother’s scent and her father’s beard. He loves the squirrels, the frogs and the caterpillars. However, the ones he loves the most is the birds… and the stones, because they were birds in the past.
Nominated to the German Young Adults’ Books Award.
"...Pekka is a magical boy, who is able to turn pain into joy, melancholy into dreams…
When the stones were still birds recalls the innocence and magic of childhood guided by a different child, who does not know what being intelligent means, but he does not care. However, he does know what love is, because he is the world champion in loving people. Maybe just that is needed to turn this book into a valuable, out of the ordinary, text” (Marcela Carranza in Imaginaria).
