In 1985, all seventh grade classes in that little group of private Danish schools known as "Free Schools" voted on "the best books in the world?” Top of both girls' and boys' lists came Dennis Jürgensen's Kærlighed ved første hik (Love at First Hiccup), before Astrid Lindgren's Bröderna Lejonhjärta (The Brothers Lionheart) and it was a first book by a nineteen year old author.
Dennis Jürgensen is one of the most popular writers for children and young people in this country, due to the fact that he writes in a language they can understand, tells them things which interest and grip them, and does so without any sign of admonishing forefingers.
This author is a child of the Coca‑cola and hamburger culture. He is fascinated by video games, roleplaying, vampires and splat in great quantities. Added to that is a series of delectable books on the earliest mutual attraction of the sexes ‑ a book of that kind is Love at first Hiccup, and several others in the same genre have appeared in which the main character is a nice, clumsy, confused boy who has been struck, by the Goddess Amour's catapult.
Djævelens hule (The Devil's Cave) combines the ultimate video game and its conquest with relationships in an authoritarian, unimaginative society outside "the cave" where the machines are hidden. It is a book in hilarious,
laserguided language, a festive firework display of words.
Dennis Jürgensen is famous for writing a very popular series about the familiar Count Dracula and his friends, beginning with Balladen om den forsvundne mumie (Trouble with the Missing Mummy). Another series has been called Knusum Kranikum .(Crushum Skullum), which could be said to represent role-play with a large number of
participants. It is Fantasy in which the au thor shows his mastery in unfolding a story on the borderline between here and there. Two children from the present, much against their will, become involved in hostilities on "the other side", between The Evil and The Even More Evil.
This author has also written short stories, crime stories, even a Christmas tale with a gruesome content, and the by Danish standards enormous Dystopia, which in about six hundred pages relates a tremendous adventure with superb use of all the effects
of the Fantasy genre. It is all about understanding each other, avoiding mutual distrust, and for this book he was selected by Danish IBBY (The International Board on Books for young People) for the international IBBY Honours List.
Because he is au fait with the tone of the day (and his readers), Dennis Jürgensen is one of the first to write about many topical subjects. Hence also the Splat genre,
which has victoriously marched all over the world via films, comics and books. Kadavermarch (Corpse March), is an effective variation on themes from, for instance, the films of Romeros. This time "the living dead" are Danes who have tried out a new preparation, which promises them better, lives. The "disease" spreads like
wildfire and produces a society in which they all devour each other. It is told with a great broad grin, for among the main characters are a slim‑punk
band which refuses to break out of the style. Corpse March is a superb mixture of thrills and grins, a swamp‑thing of international class.
Dennis Jürgensen has never had any ambition to write for adults. If it can be said, he is a child disguised as an adult, landing in adult country, but at heart and
mind still in the world of curiosity and games. He is popular because he doesn't talk down to or flatter his readers, but is one of them. Children are sensitive to that, in Denmark anyhow.
This is a short version of an article first published in Danish Children’s Literature no 3.
