The Road to Bethlehem

By : XXX

Kirsten Holst has a large and varied production to her name - a production consisting of both adult literature and books for children. Writing for adults, she has attracted most attention for her crime novels, while for children and young readers she has spread over a wider register. She is a respected Danish author and over the years has received many prizes for her books for children and young
   Among her latest publications for young people, special mention must be made here of Min ven Thomas (My Friend Thomas) (1994). Min ven Thomas is a story about Claus, his class at school through two years and about his problems with his virginity and his love for the beautiful Agatha, and then with his friend Thomas, who suddenly, sick and depressed, distances himself from him. Min ven Thomas has been sold in Germany.
   Kirsten Holst’s name is now in the foreground for Rejsen til Betlehem (The Road to Bethlehem) (1996). There are 24 chapters in the book and so it is well suited to reading in December - though certainly not only in December. It tells of the 10-year- old Marcus, a Roman who is travelling with the caravan from Damascus to Bethlehem. On the way he meets various figures from the Bible. He meets Herod, Mary Magdalene and the Three Wise Men, together with whom he finds the royal child they are seeking.
   This is simply a brilliant book. It has all the ingredients needed to make a book a success: it is well told and exciting and has an added, but nevertheless important, quality in that all its biblical allusions are correct. The reader is given a good grounding in the historical and political background, and the choice of a Jewish girl, a Roman and a Greek as the main characters is extremely effective.
   Since the seventies Kirsten Holst (born 1936) has published a great number of books for children and young people. The Safty Books include Safty og smuglerne (Safty and the Smugglers) (1976, 1986), Safty og Minktyvene (Safty and the Minkthieves) (1977, 1988), Safty og mafiaen (Safty and the Mafia) (1979, 1992) og Safty og edb-mysteriet (Safty and the Computer Mystery) (1984, 1992). The books are about the boy Safty and his friends who solve all kinds of mysteries. One of Holst's more recent books is Mysteriet om det levende lig (The Mystery about the Living Corpse) from 1992, which was shown as a television series in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about 6 children in a camping site who find a drowned man on the beach, they intend to find out what is going on, which turns out to be quite dangerous. Rights sold to Germany. All books published by Gyldendal.

This article has also been published in Danish Children’s Literature no 11

Translated by W. Glyn Jones