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‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)
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My Especially Weird Week With Tess
by Anna Woltz
Age Range: 9-11
Eleven-year-old Sam is on holiday with his family on the island of Texel, imagining what it would be like to be the last person on Earth. Then, he bumps into feisty and independent 12-year-old islander Tess and nothing is the same again. Soon Sam is learning to dance the waltz, organising the burial of a pet canary and is embroiled in Tess’s elaborate plan to meet her father, who doesn’t even know she exists. As Tess sets in motion her scheme of luring her father and his girlfriend to the island by pretending they have won a free week’s stay at her mum’s holiday cottage, Sam knows this is a week he will never forget.
Dutch author Anna Woltz has written a heart-warming and life-affirming story with a perfectly nuanced translation by David Colmar and accompanied by black and white illustrations from David Dean. While Tess grapples with her secret longing to find out who her father is, especially since her single mother has told her very little, she takes matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Sam is preoccupied with his fear of the death of a loved one believing that by spending less time with his family it will better prepare him for this eventuality. Woltz deftly deals with these serious themes of family and friendship in a witty and upliftingly way as the reader follows these two likeable characters on their unusual antics.
A quirky and enjoyable read that really warms the heart.
My Especially Weird Week With Tess won a Dutch Vlag en Wimpel, the Flemish Children’s Jury Prize in 2014, and the German Luchs-Preis in 2015 and was made into an award-winning film entitled My Extraordinary Summer With Tess in 2019.
Talking With Alaska also by Anna Woltz is reviewed on the Outside In World website.