The Blue Marble

by Hans-Georg Lenzen

Paperback

First published November 1, 1969

About the author

Seit den 1970er Jahren übersetze Hans-Georg Lenzen René Goscinnys & Jean-Jacques Sempés Der kleine Nick-Abenteuer aus dem Französischen, die somit auch im deutschsprachigen Raum zum Klassiker wurden.

Neben seiner Übersetzertätigkeit war Hans-Georg Lenzen selbst Kinderbuchautor, Illustrator und Hochschuldozent für Grafik.
Er studierte und lehrte an verschiedenen Kunsthochschulen im In- und Ausland. Zwei seiner Onkel Tobi-Bilderbücher, alle liebevoll illustriert von Sigrid Hanck-Fehse, standen auf der Auswahlliste zum Deutschen Jugendbuchpreis. Er verstarb am 21. Juli 2014 in Grevenbroich.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most children are active and frisky, and romp up and down the streets. Then the grownups call after them: "Not so loud! Not so wild!" As if that makes any difference! But sometimes there is a little boy, or maybe a little girl, among them who is always thoughtful and quiet, as if they were trying to find the answer to a question, or were looking for something that had been lost.
These children keep to themselves most of the time, and play different games from the others. Such a little boy was standing in front of a watchmaker's shop one day, looking at the clocks in the window.

A sadly dated story, with the vividly abstract, psychedelic illustrations of the late 1960s (reminding me of those in Sally Go Round the Sun), here is a sensitive and sweet little tale of a grownup who had been such a child passing on his blue glass marble to a child who is "too slow to play cowboys and indians" and who would much rather ask a series of philosophical questions about the nature of time to a clockmaker.

This is from the pre-It era, and so clowns are considered enjoyable performance artists.

Spoiler for the end of the story: the little boy meets a little girl, much like himself, and passes on the blue marble to her, joyfully.

If you want to find a marble to go with this story, it's described as clear blue with the odd entrapped tiny bubble inside, and is a little larger than a cherry (so a 'taw' or 'shooter' sized marble).

I loved it, preschool audience of 2024 "hated" it. I'm going to have to start a list for picture books adults like that kids detest.... (edit: here it is - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...)