Fighting Cats Makes You Grow

On The Girl who Crept

By : Lone Ravn

Kim Fupz Aakeson, who has now been translated into quite a few languages, has become topical this fall with even more new books. From Gyldendal Publishers, he is coming out with two new illustrated books, Da Gud fik en Hobby (God Gets a Hobby), which is about God who, out of boredom, begins to collect music, and Rokketand (Snaggletooth), which is about a girl named Katrine, who loses a front tooth and is waiting anxiously for the tooth fairy.  Kim Fupz Aakeson is also publishing two new books with Carlsen Publishers.  One is a collection of earlier stories, plus one newly written, and the other is an entirely new book, Pigen der krøb (The Girl who Crept).  The Girl Who Crept is an incredibly sweet, well-written book.  It is about a little girl named MariaMarianne, who is very shy, even though her parents and everyone else think she is so cute.  She dares not say her name or show off her playthings.  So, MariaMarianne begins to shrink.  When her parents discover this, they begin feeding her cheese – all kinds of cheeses, because they are tremendously fond of cheese.  However, MariaMarianne simply does not like cheese and, finally, she becomes so small that she can crawl into a mouse hole.  Which she does.  When the cat comes to eat MariaMarianne, she is forced to stick up for herself, and suddenly she shouts:  My name is MariaMarianne, and I am not a mouse, and I will not be eaten by any dumb, old cat.  She shouts so loudly that she regains her normal size and suddenly finds herself in the middle of the living room.  She is hungry and asks for 8 slices of bologna – for she never did like cheese.
                      The story demonstrates in a very lively way the necessity of forming your own opinions, having faith in them, and not turning yourself into something you are not just to please others.  The story is elegantly and lovingly rendered with all the humour that has become a Fupz trait and contains illustrations by Cato Thau-Jensen, who is one of the most noteworthy and creative young illustrators Denmark has to offer.

From Danish Literary Magazine 16, Autumn 1999

Translated by Russel Dees