From the jury statement:
"A road trip through a city that gradually takes on contours and constantly flashes new facets, five children who are suddenly six and could hardly be more different, and finally a task that always gives direction to the rapid journey despite all the deviations. The girl Jennifer had promised her grandfather to scatter his ashes where he had felt most at home in life, in his garden colony. Author Julia Blesken lovingly sketches her characters and then releases them into life to observe how they cope - a literary process that works beautifully."
Kirsten Boie:
" This is a convincing manuscript: quirky yet realistic; entertaining but with substance; professionally told with lovingly drawn characters and witty dialogue."
At the start of the October half term, six children have a chance encounter outside a supermarket. There’s Katja, who has had a row with her dads. Polina, who only wanted to buy some baking powder. Fridi, Mustafa and Zeck. And Jennifer, who is accompanied by her miniature Pinscher and who is also carrying her grandpa’s ashes in a plastic bag. When Mustafa tricks a biker in the car park, the children have to leg it. They have no phones and next to no money. But they do have an important mission: Jennifer’s grandpa has to be laid to rest in Kolomoro. But how’s that going to happen, when nobody has a clue where Kolomoro is?
A story full of diversity set in urban Berlin
Julia Blesken’s book Mission Kolomoro, or: Grandpa in the Plastic bag is the winner of The Kirsten Boie Prize for Children’s Literature 2020. The prize is awarded every two years by the Hamburg Literature Foundation in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Hamburg and the Hamburg children’s and youth book publishers Carlsen and Oetinger to the best unpublished children’s book by a German-speaking author.