Karin Gündisch

- the official web site -

As one of her greatest fans I have designed a web page for my mother; it's only logical, isn't it?

 

Enjoy!

Born in 1948 in Cisnadie, Transylvania (Romania), my mother has studied German and Romanian in Cluj and Bucharest. In Bucharest she taught German; besides, she worked freelance as a reporter for the German press and broadcast, and she published narratives for children and contributed to German school books.

Since November 1984 she lives in the south-west of Germany, at first in Freeburg, today in Bad Krozingen. She works as a writer.

mail to Karin Gündisch

Awards

• LesePeter for October 2005, Germany 
  Award of the Working committee for books for young people and for media (AJuM) of the GEW for Cosmin

• 22^nd award for short stories 'Der Oberrheinischer Rollwagen 2004', Germany
  3^rd price for 'Mili und Tante Milda'
  [Guendisch_Mili_und_Tante_Milda] - 15kB

• Mildred L. Batchelder Award 2002,
  Award of the American Library Association ALA to Cricket Books/Carus Publishing for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the US (How I Became an American)

• Notable Children's Book 2002
  List of children's books recommended by the American Library Association ALA (How I Became an American)

• Scholarship of the ministry for research, science and arts of Baden-Württemberg, 2001

• Children's book award of the commissioner for foreigners of the Berlin Senate (Im Land der Schokolade und Bananen), 1991

• Peter-Härtling award for children's literature (Geschichten über Astrid), Germany, 1984

• Romanian award for children's literature, 1984

Books

Geschichten über Astrid (new edition) Cosmin Mia und Tante Milda How I Became an American Das Paradies liegt in Amerika Ein Brüderchen für Lili Peter und der alte Teddy Liebe. Tage, die kommen Großvaters Hähne In der Fremde Weit, hinter den Wäldern Im Land der Schokolade und Bananen Geschichten über Astrid

Do you want to check out an extract in German?

Unfortunately only one book is translated into English: Das Paradies liegt in Amerika. 
Please refer to the pages in German or French for more information about the other books! 

more information
in German

How I Became an American

translated by James Skofield

Regina had put away her embroidery, taken an old, broken-down boot that she had scoured clean, and placed it on a newspaper she had laid on the table. She was decorating the boot with a red and blue bow.

"What on earth are you doing to that boot?" asked Mama, astonished.

"It's an antique. I'm going to hang it on the wall. It's all the fashion."

"What foolishness," Tata said and smiled.

"You have to follow every fashion, Regina? Every folly!" Mama said, but she meant no harm.

Regina hung the boot on the wall in our bedroom. Now we're fashionable and antique at the same time.

James Skofield is a translator, writer, and librettist who has been the recipient of many grants and prizes. He lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.

Cricket Books, Chicago
120 pages, $ 15.95
ISBN 0-8126-4875-7

Mildred L. Batchelder Award 2002,
Notable Children´s Book 2002

This book is also available in Germany. 
It exists in a slightly modified version in German, too.

Ages 9 to 12

“How I Became an American is an enlightening glimpse into the United States of a century ago. Through the eyes of these dual outsiders – author and narrator – readers can experience a history in which hard labor, split-up families, and the struggle to assimilate aren’t just textbook ‘issues’ but facts of life, and in which loose ends and potential, both good and bad, continue to loom large even after the last page is turned.” 

(By Matt Konrad, Ruminator Review)

Uwe

Gündisch

home page
in German