Peter Pan and Laurie

Beskrywing

BACKGROUND

More than a hundred years after the book Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie was published in England, Marié Heese’s sequel Peter Pan and Laurie is published by Protea Book House in South Africa, appearing simultaneously in English and Afrikaans, with charming illustrations by Marjorie van Heerden. Marié  Heese has published various other children’s stories. In this tale, she keeps reasonably close to the atmosphere and narrative style of the original work. Of course Peter is just as he has always been, adventurous and free, but the girl he brings to the Neverland with him this time is rather different from the motherly Wendy. His new fairy companion is Jingle Belle. There are other Lost Boys and other enemies to withstand, especially the grotesque giant Half-chewed, leader of the Ghastlies, who has only half a head and who pickles the ears of his vanquished foes, hanging them on a string around his neck and chewing them. He seeks Peter’s ears for his collection. And there are dinosaurs who want to take over the island …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marié Heese is particularly well-known as the author of Die uurwerk kantel, a classic Afrikaans novel first published in 1976, and reprinted in 2006 and 2015. She is also well-known as the author of the children’s book Pikkewouters van Amper-Stamperland (first edition published in 1974, reprinted in 2008) and the youth novel Karoo-kantate (2013). Furthermore, she has published three English historical novels, including The Double Crown that won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best Book, Africa region, in 2010. Her novel about Theodora of Byzantium, The Colour of Power, was translated into Turkish, and long-listed for the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa (amongst 402 English and French entries from 26 countries). The sequel, A Triple-headed Serpent, appeared in 2012. In 2013, Heese’s first Afrikaans novel in 30 years, and the first prehistoric Afrikaans novel, Vuurklip, was published, followed by Maestro in 2016. Many of her short stories have been included in anthologies. Currently, the possibility of Japanese and German translations of Haiku in Africa, an anthology of haikus that was published by Unisa in 1997 (and reprinted in 2015), is being explored.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Since the publication of Marjorie van Heerden’s first children’s picture book in 1983, more than 120 titles have been published with her as illustrator or writer/illustrator and her work has been translated into 34 languages and distributed in Africa, Britain, Europe, the East, Canada and the USA. Marjorie van Heerden has won numerous awards for her work including the 2011 W.B. Mkhize Award, handed out annually by the Usiba Writers’ Guild, for the Zulu edition of Lulama’s long way home (Uhambo LukaLulama Olude), a picture book she wrote and illustrated, published by Giraffe Books, an imprint of  HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_MacMillan” \o “Pan MacMillan” Pan MacMillan. In 2012, Marjorie and author Alex D’Angelo won the M.E.R. Award (one of the  HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media24_Books_Literary_Awards” \o “Media24 Books Literary Awards” Media24 Books Literary Awards) for the best illustrated children’s book published in South Africa during the previous year (2011) – they won for Goblin Diaries: Apprenticed to the Red Witch, published by Tafelberg Publishers (SA). This was the second time she had been awarded this prestigious award – the first time was in 2008 when she won it with author Wendy Hartmann for Nina and Little Duck, published in 2007 by Human & Rousseau.

This publication is also available in Afrikaans, Peter Pan en Laurie.

READERS’ PROFILE

Youth (8-12 years)