#angela sommer-bodenburg

[bookola-de]

Rezension: Katharina Thalbach liest Angela Sommer-Bodenburg - Der kleine Vampir: Dein Freund für immer

Katharina Thalbach liest Angela Sommer-Bodenburg Der kleine Vampir Dein Freund für immer Rezension © 2024 by Ute Spangenmacher für BookOla.de 2024 Argon Verlag Sprecherin: Katharina Thalbach ungekürzte Lesung Laufzeit: 301 Minuten MP3 CD ISBN: 978-3839843147 Erscheinungstermin: 25. Juni 2024 bestellen bei Amazon Continue reading Rezension: Katharina Thalbach liest Angela Sommer-Bodenburg – Der…

[paperbackpurgatory]

Angela Sommer-Bodenburg's If You Want To Scare Yourself (1984)

Pleasant dreams!

[laurasimonsdaughter]

When vampires (or vampire-like revenants) manage the masquerade as human in folktales, there is usually some mention of what they do or do not eat. For instance that they seem to not eat at all, or only eat meat, or only drink water. But I've always loved Angela Sommer-Bodenburg's lore in her Der kleine Vampir series that includes the detail of vampires, especially young vampires, can also drink milk and eat milk products.

It feels logical, milk is a liquid source of life just as much as blood is. And while most old folklore isn't at all concerned with giving vampires ways to appear more human, there is a folkloric basis to letting them drink milk as well as blood, and that delights me:

"The second curious characteristic requiring an explanation is the belief that the vampire sometimes drinks milk rather than blood. Ernest Jones in his pioneering essay on the vampire notes this feature when he comments: "The German Alp sucks the nipples of men and children, and withdraws milk from women and cows more often than blood. The Drud also sucks the breasts of children, while the Southern Slav Mora sucks blood or milk indifferently" (1971:119). In Romania, we are told that vampires on St. George's Eve "take milk away from nursing mothers" (Murgoci 1926:332)."

From: The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dunes, 1998, p. 163.

[greykolla-art]

hi listen i just wanted to say ur artstyle reminds me a lot of “the little vampire” by angela sommer-bodenburg which was my favorite saga growing up so thank u sm for reminding me of it, keep it up, u have a lot of talent !!

The little vampire is part of my autistic DNA baby!

Even though we only had 3 books translated into Icelandic.😂

the teacher read them to us during lunchtime in middle school, and it altered my brain chemistry!

[e-c-guyot-blog]

Le Curieux Sujet : les dhampires

(vous ne trouvez pas qu’il ressemble à David enfant…? 😂) Je vais vous avouer quelque chose. 😊 Pendant 20 ans, j’ai tenu un site web sur les vampires… oui. Les vampires! 🧛 La vérité, c’est que j’ai toujours aimé les histoires de vampires. Enfant, j’ai lu les livres de la série de Bibliothèque Rose du Petit Vampire de Angela Sommer Bodenburg. Puis j’ai lu Dracula de Bram Stoker, et Lestat le…

[rollingthunderpouringrain]

1, 2, 17? <3

Thank you 🥰

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

Not counting comics thats probably either the Neverending Story by Michael Ende or HP 1. Though there are many books from my childhood I reread a LOT, I don't remember the titles right now.

2. top 5 books of all time?

😵 No way. Ask me this at a different time and I will give you a different answer. I'm sure there's a different answer on this very blog. I will try nonetheless.

- Lord Of The Rings 1 by Tolkien

- Neverending Story by Michael Ende

- Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

- Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

This is a very very subjective list and so many are missing omg...

17. top 5 children’s books?

🥲😵‍💫 Another very subjective list.

- Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

- The Little Vampire by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg

- The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

- Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

- The Little Witch by Otfried Preußler

Thank you XD

♡

[milla984]

pansy and daffodil for the flower asks!

Daffodil

1: I used to call my teddy bear 'Bei' because I couldn't pronunce the word 'bear' or 'bär', in German (part of my family is of Austrian descent) 2: I started reading when I was 3yo 3: during primary school I didn't have permission to watch tv after 9:30pm. My mom was a huge X-Files fan back then so I remember being absolutely creeped out but the intro I could hear playing from the living room, every Sunday night 4: one of my fave albums to listen to on the bus during field trips was Queen's Greatest Hits vol.2 5: and Brian May was my first celebrity crush ever (I blame the hair) 6: I probably read Matilda + The Witches by Roald Dahl and Der kleine Vampir/The Little Vampire saga by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg a bazillion times 7: I had people gifting me earrings (for pierced ears) more often than not, as a b*day present. Spoiler alert - I don't have pierced ears 8: I loved having dinner at our family's friends' place because the conversation between adults was so boring to me I was allowed to watch a cartoon movie. I still don't know wtf thought Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings was a suitable choice for a 5yo… but that was the movie I would always ask them to play for me, since it scared me to death

Pansy

1: it's the second biggest city in my Country 2: our metro/underground system has five lines while Rome (the capital city) only has three 3: on top of the highest spire of our main cathedral stands a Madonna statue covered in real gold foil. The statue had to be wrapped up in rags during WW2 so that British pilots couldn't spot it's shining surface and drop their bombs right in the heart of the city 4: Milan is famous for being very 'fashionable'. In fact, there's a particular area known as the 'Golden Quadrilater' (or Quadrilater of Fashion, a literal translation of its Italian name) which is bordered by four streets full of top-end boutiques and retail outlets that belongs to the world's major fashion houses 5: one of Leonardo's masterpieces, L'Ultima Cena/The Last Supper is located in its original painting place, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie/Saint Mary of Graces, not far from the city centre. Leonardo also designed a floodgates system that was used to navigate the river that runs across the city - the floodgates are still visible today but they're not in use anymore 6: it's an ancient city so there's plenty of ghost stories, superstitions and interesting facts connected to the spiritual world (for reference: 🎃, 🎃, 🎃) 7: traditional dishes of my city include: saffron risotto with ossobuco (sliced shin of veal containing marrowbone), panettone and milanese cutlet

[jezyan]

bad luck...

[rudolph-sackville-bagg]

Wait. Hold on. In the original Little Vampire books by Angela Sommer-Bodengurg, does Anton (Tony) use a magic cape to fly like in the 1986 TV show? IS THE HAND HOLDING NEW to the 2000 and 2017 movies???

[my-childhood-in-ruins]

Sooo beeing a four-time aunt now I have no excuses to not dive head first back into my childhood obsessions... And WHY THE ABSOLUTE FRICK DID NOBODY TELL ME THAT "DER KLEINE VAMPIR" GOT A FINAL BOOK... LIKE WHYYYYY

I heard more about the 2017 animated movie than the final book of the series from 2015 ...that ...that is just... Angela Sommer-bodenburg was my favorite childhood Authors and the release of that last book in this iconic series just... Pooof went straight over my head... I am ashamed of myself seriously .

Anyways read it , loved it and still have the uncanny wish to see Olga fall head first into a deep pond to never be seen again. (Also I kinda want a modernize 2D animated series that's a bit closer to the books but ehh probably have to do it myself if I ever really want to see that happen)

Anyone else on this hellsite still obsessed with that childrens book series by any chance? Probably not but eh still gonna start posting about it lol

[jackalreads]

jomp book photo challenge || september 2019

day thirteen: book spine poetry

“in the night garden

the little vampire

conjured the past

and other things that should stay

buried.”

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Rereading your vampire posts and I feel like you would've have enjoyed My Sister the Vampire book series. It's for middle schoolers but the world building was so fun. I have fond memories of it :)

Those look really fun! I would have absolutely devoured those as a kid!

I grew up with De Griezelklas (The Horror Class/Grade) by Tais Teng about a school for Extaordinary Children (because they are vampires and werewolves and elves and witches and whatnot). And with The Little Vampire series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. Both of which were definitely formative influences for me ^^

[pellicano-sanguino]

Today I went to see a play that’s based on the Little Vampire books by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. I know, it’s embarrassing for an adult to go see a play for children, but I have a strong nostalgic connection to these books. They introduced me to the concept of vampires and got me hooked on the genre. So, here are some random thoughts about the play.

I should probably say a word or two about the books first. The first book came out during the 80s and after re-reading it a while ago, I must admit some parts of it haven’t aged that well (also, I’m no longer the intended target audience). I will give Sommer-Bodenburg credit for not watering down her vampires into child friendly versions. There are a lot of childrens’ vampire fiction where they clearly just wanted the aesthetics of vampires, not the actual brutal reality of vampirism like blood drinking and, you know, the whole being undead thing. Angela Sommer-Bodenburg doesn’t pussyfoot around the creepier aspects of vampire culture. Her vampires drink blood (except Anna, who hasn’t grown her fangs yet), and they talk about their deaths quite frankly and openly, including that they were turned by their own family members. 

The basic premise is a small boy named Anton befriending some vampire children and them trying to hang out with each other while keeping it secret from each other’s families. The play is based on the first book of the series and I think it’s a pretty decent and quite faithful adaptation. They’ve changed some things, but not much and the plot follows the book accurately.

Not gonna lie, the actor playing Anton was really wooden and fake, like a cardboard cutout. That’s the problem of having grown adults play small children. I know theater is all about suspending your disbelief (like in Takarazuka, believing that the clearly female otokoyaku are in fact male on the stage), but somehow I just have trouble buying Anton’s performance. Doesn’t help that he speaks in a very formal version of Finnish that no child speaks in real life. He tries so hard to make his voice and body language appear childlike, but it’s just not working. 

Rydiger on the other hand is fantastic. He’s quite different than the Rydiger from the books, but I don’t mind. In the books, Rydiger was my least favourite of the vampire children but here he is the best one of them and the best actor in the whole play. Instead of being a bratty, insufferable gremlin, he has elegant mannerisms, pleasant voice and he’s the most reasonable and caring of the vampire siblings. It’s not book accurate, but I approve. I especially like how this Rydiger talks and uses his body language. Unlike Anton, who shouldn’t be speaking in formal Finnish, Rydiger was raised over a hundred years ago and so was taught different kinds of speech and manners. He really comes off like a creature from another time. I love his little hand gestures, and his costume is so stylish and much more nice looking than the ragged gremlin-Rydiger from the books. Despite his adult-like mannerisms, Rydiger still acts like a child, much more accurately than Anton.

I fail to see what this cooler version of Rydiger sees in the boring, wooden block that is Anton. I totally see what Anton sees in Rydiger, who wouldn’t want a stylish little vampire friend. In the books I criticized Anton’s reasons for keeping up his friendship with Rydiger. In the books, Rydiger was a rude little shit, constantly making fun of Anton, stealing his books and being generally a real jerk. I thought, that if Rydiger wasn’t a vampire, Anton would never put up with such a lousy friend. Anton only tolerated Rydiger’s bullshit because he was a vampire and having a vampire friend was cool. Kids, don’t keep up friendships with people just because you like what they are, the more important thing is who they are. Anyway, in the play I can more easily buy their friendship (yes, Rydiger gets his moments of being a jerkface, but not nearly as badly as in the books). The scene where Rydiger teaches Anton how to fly was very adorable. And because the child characters were being played by grown adults, also kinda...  romantic?

“I’m flying, Jack! I’m flying!”

Anton’s parents were your token Normal People (TM) of the show. Both in the play and in the book they make fun of Anton’s interest in vampires, especially his mother (I swear, Angela Sommer-Bodenburg must have had some mother issues). It’s very sad to see parents mock the interests of their child. I know the feeling, it’s one of the reasons I always place the books I read down cover first so that no one can read the cover and call me stupid for liking a book like that. I’m so conditioned to do this, I do it even when I’m all alone at home. Do not mock your childrens’ interests, people, it will have long lasting effects. 

For whatever reason they changed Geiermeier the vampire hunter’s name to...  I don’t quite remember, Kalmankulma or something similar. Anton’s surname was changed to a Finnish name too, and they’ve updated the story to modern times, since they talk about euros instead of marks. But Anton’s family still has a corded phone, and Anna could call them from a phone booth. It’s weird they updated some parts but also kept some things that have become obsolete tech since the 80s. 

Man, did they fuck up Anna. I hated the look they gave her. What is up with that white, poofy hair, she looks like an old granny, not a five or six year old little girl. And why is her dress so short, we do not need to see her legs all the way up. Ugh, and how they failed with her character. Everything good that I said about Rydiger they must have cut off from book-Anna. In the book, Anna is the kindest, smartest and most humane of all the vampire children. The boys are selfish assholes who treat Anton like a fun toy, but Anna actually genuinely cares about the feelings of their human friend. She is also a strong independent young lady who has a fiery temper and will not tolerate any sass from her mean spirited brothers. Her only downside is that she’s a victim of a really annoying childrens’ book trope, namely that whenever there’s another female character around she becomes jealous of Anton and is unnecessarily rude to the other girls. I get it, kids can be bratty and jealous, but can we please stop teaching little girls the stupid lie that all girls are each others’ enemies and must fight for the attention of boys. For fuck’s sake, let girls be friends with each other, thinking they can only be friends with boys is ridiculous and misogynistic!

Well, Anna of the play is not smart, caring or strong (unless you count annoying, noisy hissy fits as strength, I guess). She has turned into a brainless diva, who simultaneously is smitten by Anton and also doesn’t care what he has to say about anything. Why would you do this to my favourite character!? In the books there were some really heartfelt scenes between Anna and Anton. Like, when Anna proposes the idea that when she gets her fangs she could bite Anton and turn him so that they could be friends forever, and Anton makes it very clear that he has no intention of ever becoming a vampire. This saddens Anna, because it means that Anton will grow to be an adult but Anna and her siblings will forever remain children, with no one to play with. These two must come to an understanding that while they like each other very much, they belong in two different worlds and they must accept that it means they will one day have to say goodbye. All things come to an end, it’s only a matter of when and how. So, why wasn’t a meaningful scene like that in the play?

Finally, we have Lumpi (whose name was changed to Leo in the play). I think he was fine, maybe suffering from a tiny bit of overacting, but still an ok performance. He doesn’t get much screentime, because in the first book we don’t get to see him much. Which is a shame because he is my favourite right after Anna. 

If you thought Claudia from Interview with the Vampire was the most tragic of all child vampires, then clearly, you have not met Lumpi von Schlotterstein. He was turned right in the middle of going through puberty. And so, he is doomed for all eternity to suffer from acne, breaking voice and mood swings. Truly, a lamentable fate is his.

Adding Lumpi to the vampire children friending Anton added a lot of dramatic tension to the group. Because of his mood swings, Lumpi was unpredictable and sometimes even downright threatening. Out of all the vampire kids, he had the least control over his vampire instincts and there were several moments where he considered drinking Anton. So scenes with him could be really intense. Also, he was supposed to be the vain kid with style, being especially proud of his long, sharp fingernails that he cared and filed constantly. They took his style and gave it to Rydiger, they took his vanity and gave it to Anna. Well, he still had a nice, red shirt that went well together with his white scarf and black cape.

Rydiger’s grandmother Sabine also makes an appearance. Strange that they added Sabine and not aunt Dorothee, who was the most dangerous, most blood thirsty of all the von Schlotterstein vampires. In the books Dorothee is the one the kids need to look out for whenever Anton’s visiting their home in the graveyard. There’s a scene where Anton has to hide in Rydiger’s coffin because of her and in the play they do the scene with Sabine. Well, maybe they thought any old vampire lady will do. Also they clearly wanted her to be more comedic relief character, not a threatening, blood drinking monster. Just like Dorothee in the book, Sabine commands Rydiger to go back to sleep and he has to cram himself into his coffin with Anton still there. Once Sabine’s gone, the boys get out and sigh in relief, and Lumpi comments “Well, did you take advantage of the opportunity, brother?” Look, I know he means blood drinking, but these kids being played by adults I can’t help but think about gay vampires sharing a coffin. Doesn’t help that Rydiger replies with a disgusted “Of course not! I’m not like you!” Which enrages Lumpi, because “W-w-what are you implying!?” I’m sorry, my mind is in the gutter, but I can’t help it. Carmilla and Anne Rice have made me see lesbian and gay vampires everywhere.

Well, for a small budget childrens’ play, it was a fun show. Wished they hadn’t changed some of the characters so drastically, but overall it was pretty book accurate, which was a relief (I was worried they were going to make a story of their own and just use the characters’ names, like that awful movie version). A nice nostalgic visit back to the first vampire books I ever read.

[michameinmicha]

Ich poste hier nochmal einen Link zur Serie, nachdem ich das ganze doch etwas geändert hab. Der Oneshot ist noch der gleiche, aber er ist jetzt nicht mehr ein Kapitel, dem ich weitere Oneshots als zusätzliche Kapitel hinzufügen werde, sondern ein alleinstehender Teil in einer Serie.

Hoffe, das ist nicht zu verwirrend und dass ich bald mal einen nächsten Teil überarbeitet bekomme...

[a-damsel]

If You Want to Scare Yourself - Angela Sommer-Bodenburg (1984)

If You Want to Scare Yourself is a fun, small book. It is not too remarkable, but it does fulfill its purpose - to convey a fun story aimed at younger audiences. Although I do not find the tales in this book creepy or scary per se, I can see a younger me or one of my siblings getting creeped out while reading this.

All in all, I thought it was a decent book. There are superior creepy stories for younger audiences, see R.L. Stein's oeuvre. I would not purposely look for it in a book store or someplace online, but if you see this book in Goodwill or some other thrift store for a dollar or two, I would tell you to grab it.

[caricature-of-a-witch]

Reading Diary

Finished “The Moriarty Papers - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’s Great Nemesis. Compiled by Colonel Sebastian Moran” yesterday. (I seem unable to find out who actually wrote the book, and I can’t be bothered to do a deeper search right now, just accept Moran as the author.)

I bought it in London on a whim, when I visited the Sherlock Holmes Museum with my mum and saw the book and figured why not, but to be honest I’m kind of regretting it. Maybe it’s because I haven’t actually read all of Doyle’s SH stories yet (and it’s been a while since I read any of them at all) so I don’t know everything there is and maybe there’s stuff I’m not aware of that’s being referenced here, but even so I don’t think it would make up for the style.

It’s written in something like diary entries of Moriarty’s, compiled pretty much out of order for some reason (there’s dates on the pages. It’s out of order on purpose and I honestly don’t see why), some handwritten and some typed on a typewriter, with the occasional photo or newspaper clipping, and, apparently, the odd side note from Moran in the margins. Both the diary entries and the side notes seem pretty much ridiculous. Moran sounds like a whining child half he time? And Moriarty... like a storybook villain from a children’s book. I cannot even explain it. I took a picture of one page:

He keeps obsessing about being a “villain” and even literally calls himself a “supervillain” at some point, and maybe it’s just me, and maybe everyone else who read it really loved it (in which case, go ahead! Don’t mind me!), but for me it’s just... no. Additionally, it feels like Moriarty in this book has to do with a bunch of cases he was never related to in the originals? But maybe I just haven’t gotten far enough with those yet. Still - did Watson ever work for Moriarty? Was Mrs Hudson one of his agents? Lestrade too? Everyone seems to have been one according to this book?? What did I miss?

On a friendlier note, this morning I re-read, for the first time in at least 8 years, the book “Die Moorgeister” (Moor Spirits, Ghosts of the Swamp, Idk, I think there’s no English version) by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg (the author of “The Little Vampire”). (It’s way shorter than I remembered, I literally read the whole thing on the way to work.)

It tells the story of Timo, a young boy who ends up spending the summer holidays at his aunt’s in a tiny village near the swamp, which he gets thoroughly introduced to by his aunt’s neighbour’s daughter Lydia. They both have red hair, and apparently redheads have the ability to see ghosts/spirits and the like, so there’s a bunch of nature spirits who are nice or not s nice, and Timo as a city kid is pretty overwhelmed at first (which Lydia is quite judgemental of). Still, they befriend each other, and Timo learns how to behave around spirits pretty well (pretty sure some of them are just pretty much Fae?) and also to maybe not follow the three strange creatures who want to plunge their souls into the black ghost lake, huh. It’s very much a story for children (even though I remember being terrified of it as a kid, to a degree, even while loving it, but that’s fine since I was terrified of anything even remotely creepy), and even though I was originally planning to give it away, I’m glad I decided to keep it!