Anita Siegfried (Text), Claudia de Weck (Ill.)

Max ist los! Im Affentempo durch Zürich

«Max läuft zwischen Betonpfeilern hindurch. Über seinem Kopf braust der Verkehr. Kein Stückcken Himmel ist zu sehen. Was für eine eigenartige Idee, Strassen in die Luft zu bauen, denkt Max.»

The little monkey Max has been living in a painting in the Zurich art museum for a long time. Which is far too boring, and which is why he seizes the opportunity of a left-behind backpack to leave his picture. His adventure turns into a veritable tour of the city of Zurich: the waste incineration plant, the Lindenhof park and the lake play as an important part as the Rote Fabrik cultural centre, the main station and the Kanzlei school grounds. With the help of many different people and a portion of serendipity he finally manages to return the backpack to its little owner. Tired but content he returns to his painting.

Sequences of small images pick up on the story’s speed while large-format illustrations invite the eye to linger and to look more closely. The hidden details taken form paintings found in the Kunsthaus are an especially attractive and playful stylistic element by illustrator Claudia de Weck, who is native to Zurich. Together with a myriad of information on the locations and pictures in the appendix, this makes the book into a children’s city guide of the unusual kind.

(Barbara Jakob, translation by Simon Froehling)
Quelle: SIKJM Database

Translation of title: Max on the Loose! Zurich at Breakneck Speed

Atlantis, Zürich 2001