At a fast pace and full of humour this colourful children's comic tells the story of an oddly charming, extraordinary character's path to self-discovery. Babette, who was bought as a pet years ago, cannot be pigeonholed. She is the size of a toddler, has yellow fur, can talk, loves quiz programmes, peanut flips and anything that scares her. When her 16-year-old owner goes away for a year, her younger neighbour Boris takes responsibility for her. In his endeavours to keep Babette a secret from his parents and at the same time create a safe home for her, he gets caught up in a cheerfully chaotic mess of exhausting care work. Babette's pronounced need to be creeped out is particularly troublesome for him. Above all, however, it is her unfulfilled longing for belonging that deeply touches and challenges Boris and, in turn, the reader. Tanja Esch creates a variety of characters in this story with great naturalness. She offers young readers a multitude of points of reference to their own worlds of experience. The detailed and consistent characterisation is both amusing and touching. It is a strong (visual) linguistic achievement to create a character who is simultaneously demanding and longing, funny and lost. Here the claim to happiness and participation is told in an original and at the same time accessible way.
This title was awarded with the 2023 German Children՚s Literature Award.