January 15, 2021
An imagining of an unlikely real-life episode in the life of absurdist Franz Kafka. Theule follows the outline of the account: When Kafka meets an unhappy girl in a Berlin park in 1923 and learns her doll is lost, Kafka writes a series of letters from Soupsy, the doll, to Irma, the girl. The real letters and the girl's identity have been lost to history; the invented letters describe a dazzling variety of adventures for Soupsy. Unfortunately, as the letters increase in excitement, Kafka's health declines (he would die of tuberculosis in June 1924), and he must find a way to end Soupsy's adventures in a positive way. In an author's note, readers learn that Kafka chose to write that Soupsy was getting married. Theule instead opts to send the doll on an Antarctic expedition. Irma gets the message that she can do anything, and the final image shows her riding a camel, a copy of Metamorphosis peeking from a satchel. While kids may not care about Kafka, the short relationship between the writer and the little girl will keep their interest. Realizing that an adult can care so much about a child met in the park is empowering. The stylized illustrations, especially those set in the chilly Berlin fall, resemble woodcuts with a German expressionist look. The doll's adventures look a little sweeter, with more red and blue added to the brown palette of the German scenes. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23% of actual size.) This reimagined telling has an engaging charm that rings true. (biographical note, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-7)
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Starred review from June 1, 2021
K-Gr 2-Theule recounts the true story of Kafka, on a walk with his partner Dora, encountering a small girl named Irma crying over the loss of her doll. Kafka transforms the loss of the doll into an adventure. He tells Irma that her doll has gone on a trip and that she has sent a letter, for which he is the "volunteer postman." Sadly, he has left the letter in an overcoat at home. Irma is astounded, but is back at the park the next day awaiting him. Thus begins a series of days, turned into weeks of letters detailing the doll's travels. from having tea in England with Peter Rabbit to walking with Gaudi in Barcelona. Kafka, very ill, produces a final letter stating that the doll has gone on an expedition to Antarctica. The last image is of a grown Irma riding a camel, and with her are copies of Kafka's novels. Based on true events told to Kafka's biographer, Theule fills in the gaps with a conversational narrative, while the old-fashioned illustrations, on parchment-colored paper, deftly wind scenes of the doll with the interactions between Kafka and Irma. All the characters, real and imagined, are white. While the importance of Kafka in literature may not yet resonate with the picture-book demographic, this charmingly enhanced tale otherwise has it all: the kindness of a stranger, the loss of a beloved toy, adventures, and even closure. Back matter includes the author's notes on her changes to the tale, a brief biography of Kafka, and a short bibiliography. VERDICT A winsome tale for the young, this could also be of value in high school collections where Kafka is taught.-Katie Llera, Bound Brook Elem. Sch., NJ
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Starred review from February 1, 2021
Grades 2-4 *Starred Review* Spun from a true anecdote and likely to move adult readers as well as younger ones, this set of quiet encounters between a writer and a child has as much going on between the spare, poetic lines as in them. In the park one autumn day, Franz Kafka questions a crying child and learns that her name is Irma and that she has lost her doll, Soupsy. Assuring Irma that her doll is only traveling, Kafka rejoins her over the following days with handwritten letters signed by Soupsy that record the pleasures of taking tea in England with Peter Rabbit, strolling with Gaud� in Barcelona, and enjoying warm sfenj and mint tea in Morocco. Some days, Irma waits in vain for the kind, coughing writer (he would die of tuberculosis just a few months after their first encounter), and, for what becomes their final meeting, he brings both a blank journal and a farewell letter from Soupsy--who, it seems, is off to remotest Antarctica. The original letters are lost, but along with a biographical note, Theule supplies creatively recast versions that capture a heady sense of the wider world. Green tops off her muted scenes of button-eyed figures in, alternately, autumnal and far-flung settings. A tribute to the way words can change lives, as well as a rare glimpse of a writer most of us perhaps only think we know.
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