The book ‘Himmelwärts’ by Karen Köhler, with illustrations by Bea Davies, has been awarded the 36th Catholic Children’s and Young People’s Book Prize of the German Bishops’ Conference in 2025. The jury honours a children’s book that deals with the power of friendship and its comforting dimension in the most difficult moments.
This is a very prestigious award in Germany and greatly affects the assessment of booksellers and schools, as they support its prescription in a definite way.
Jury’s assessment:
‘Himmelwärts tells the story of the friends Toni and YumYum. Ten-year-old Toni has lost her mother and suffers from what she calls a terrible ‘lack’. To alleviate this, YumYum builds a ‘cosmic radio’ that can transmit directly from the garden behind Toni’s house into space. Where the children are now waiting for their dead mother in heaven. On three occasions, the children catch up with another person on the way: astronaut Zanna, who is conducting research on the International Space Station (ISS), and talk to her: ‘An eye-level conversation ensues, including theories about what might have happened before the Big Bang’: ‘Although Toni’s brain “knots” at the word singularity, it still reflects the uniqueness of each person,’ according to the jury’s statement. It acknowledges and appreciates the novel’s perspective, which ‘keeps open the question of what comes after death’. Looking towards the sky.