JEvery similarity, writes the author at the end of her novel, “between the things on these pages and the things our family may have lost and found again” is “entirely intentional”. And if you also keep in mind that the story of little Jack’s terry pig, as the author says elsewhere, was inspired by a very similar cuddly toy from her own son, then that sounds like a prose of private things that is unfortunately all too widespread in children’s books that can produce terribly cheesy results because rosy memories of cute moments do not always have the best literary subjects ready.
Fortunately, “Jack’s wonderful journey with the Christmas pig”, the novel by Harry Potter author JK Rowling that is being published worldwide in German by Carlsen, is leaving this channel quickly. In any case, this children’s book, the second in quick succession after the “Ickabog” from 2020, is not particularly cute. Jack, a boy of elementary school age, has to watch his parents’ marriage break up, his father move out and his mother move with him to another city. There he befriends the cool, several years older Holly. But when Holly’s parents split up and her father and Jack’s mother later become a couple, Holly behaves aggressively towards Jack – the argument escalates during a car trip just before Christmas, during which Holly, provoked by Jack, throws his beloved terry pig out of the car window. what drives the boy into deep sadness and at the same time a fit of rage. He beats the replacement pig with his fists and tries to tear off its head.
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