When in Will Gmehling's award-winning 1919 middle grade novel Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel the three Bukowski siblings (ten year old Alfred/Alf, eight year old Katinka and seven year old Robbie) manage to rescue an unsupervised toddler from drowning at an indoor public swimming pool (a Hallenbad in German) their reward is a whole summer of free swimming at the local Freibad, from the fifteenth of May to the fifteenth of September, every day rain or shine (and the German noun das Freibad does not mean as one might think a free swimming pool, but a public outdoor pool and which would of course thus only be open during the summer months until the middle of September). And yes, for Alf, Katinka and Robbie, since the Bukowski family does not have a lot of money, going away somewhere abroad for vacation is therefore simply out of the question, free swimming for the entire summer (for over one-hundred days) is an amazing and a very much personally appreciated reward, and thus the three siblings take full advantage of their reward and indeed go swimming at the Freibad every single day, with Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel showing how each of the children has specific goals for the summer, that Alfred wants to successfully dive from the ten metre tower, that Katinka wants to learn how to do the crawl and that Robbie is supposed to finally learn how to swim (since at present, since at the beginning of Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel he still just splashes around in the shallow end of the pool).
Well, when I first started reading Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel, I was perhaps a wee bit concerned that a novel set entirely at an outdoor swimming pool and dealing only with what the Bukowski siblings experience there might get a bit tedious. But no, there are a lot of interesting, readable and also relatable scenarios encountered in Will Gmehling's featured text and that Alf, Katinka and Robbie also work on themselves and develop as the summer progresses during Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel, with all three attaining their above mentioned goals, with Alf equally experiencing his first crush, Katinka teaching herself French since she wants to one day be a fashion model and live in Paris and with shy and hugely introverted Robbie's observations (when he chooses to talk, when he decides to say something) being not only usually spot-on so to speak but also kind of flabbergasting his brother and sister in a very good and indeed often humorous way (and not to mention that it has also been absolutely delightful with Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel encountering and reading a German language and award winning children's novel where the author does not deal with huge issues, with WWII, with migrants, politics, social issues, problematic romantic drama etc. but is simply showing a fun and entertaining story of three siblings enjoying themselves at and in the Freibad, and that Alf's first person narration for Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel also both makes me smile and also makes me nostalgically remember visiting outdoor swimming pools in Germany when I was nine and ten years of age, before we immigrated to Canada in 1976).
Finally, yes, yes, yes, both my inner child and also adult I have pretty much adored absolutely everything about Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel, and not just the swimming, not just that Will Gmehling has penned a perfectly lovely summer tale with no huge dramatics and no issue heavy thematics, but also that in Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel, Alfred, Katinka and Robbie are shown as enjoying close sibling bonds with no rivalry, with no nastiness etc. that Alfred and Katinka also do not at all care that Robbie is very introverted, never feels like talking all that much, how they totally accept their little brother and appreciate him for how and who he is and equally do not attempt to change him either (except for in Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel Alf and Katinka teaching Robbie how to swim, but that this has actually come from Robbie himself, as he wants to learn and not to be permanently stuck in the shallow end of the swimming pool anymore). So five stars for Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel, highly recommended, but with the caveat that Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel has not been translated into English and is at present only available in the German original as well as in Slovenian, Italian, Russian and Spanish translations (and I did notice that the Spanish edition seems to be quite readily available on ABE Books). But yes, if you have an intermediate level and above fluency in German, you should definitely be able to read and easily understand Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel (and that Gmehling's text is also nicely middle grade reader friendly and thus also not too difficult and certainly not in any way academic in scope and feel either). Oh and by the way, my edition of Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel (which is a paperback copy that was ordered for me by my local independent bookstore) also has teaching suggestions and activities (which is a neat idea if Freibad - Ein ganzer Sommer unter dem Himmel is to be used in the classroom but which I personally also tend to find just a wee bit distracting).