Lesung aus dem Jugendroman “Kissing the Rain“ von Kevin Brooks (Großbritannien)
am Freitag, den 7. September 2007
Feedback given by students of our bilingual class 10c:
Teacher: Mrs. Tomiak
The international literature festival
When we arrived at "the international literature festival" the yard in front of the House of Literature was very crowded. We went into the big hall and sat down into the green seats. The light turned off and a young man went onto the stage and played a song on his guitar. Then a woman gave us a short introduction to the procedure of this event and the author. She announced him and the German reader Oliver Rohrbeck (the German voice of Ben Stiller) and Kevin Brooks began to read. It sounded very exiting and the chapters they chose gave us a good impression about the story. They alternated after a few text passages, so it was very interesting.
I really like the way he has written the book, and how the German reader stressed the text.
The two readers looked like twins, because they both had a bald head, glasses and wore black clothes.
After the reading we got another 30 minutes to ask the author some questions. He told us something about himself and why he has written about a boy standing on a bridge for many hours every day. Later we got the chance to buy the book and have it autographed.
I think his book is very interesting and not too difficult to understand - I really enjoyed listening to the reading.
written by Julia K.
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Kevin Brooks – Kissing the rain
We visited a reading of the book ”Kissing the Rain“ written by Kevin Brooks on Friday, September 7th. It took place at the “Haus der Berliner Festspiele”, Schaperstraße 24 during the Seventh International Literaturefestival, Berlin.
“Kissing the Rain” is about Michael Nelson, named “Moo”, who is bullied, because he is totally overweight. Often, when he wants to be alone, he goes to his secret place, a motorway bridge, where he feels safe. There he is playing games, for example, counting cars, creating stories about the car drivers or trying to find out their attributes (alcoholic, loser, winner). But one day, his whole boring life changes. While he is on “his” bridge again, a car accident happens, where one guy goes down. At this point, Moo finds himself in a dangerous dilemma. The police wants him to tell lies, the dangerous felon is intimidating him to tell the truth. What should he do? Every choice is not a good choice. There is nothing like a “one and right choice”.
Our class met in front of the building at 9.45 AM. Then, five minutes later we went in. The reading was in the same hall, where I heard the reading of the book “Gomorrha” by Roberto Saviano a day before. “Gomorrha” is about the dangerous south-Italian Camorra and its connections all over Europe. We were not the only class, many other classes from all over Berlin were there, too. I didn´t like the people, who where sitting next to me. One girl was always laughing about the bad pronunciation of pupils, who asked questions. The guy behind me was a “Gangster” who was confident, that he will become the next “DSDS” star, because of his charisma and voice, he told his friends in an absolutely serious voice. So I felt really disturbed.
The beginning of the reading was like readings normally begin: two sentences in German to impress the audience and saying that the author is totally surprised, that so many people visited his reading. As though he wouldn´t know, how many people are visiting his reading. So I found it a little bit ridiculous. Then he read some passages out of the book. The German translator was the voice of the “German” Ben Stiller. So it was strange but at the same time interesting to hear his voice.
The reading itself was good and I´ve understood nearly everything, although in my opinion he had a broad accent. In any case it was much better than sitting at school, but I don´t want to buy the book, because it is a little bit too boring and it is not the type of a book I like to read.
written by Lars W.
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International Literature Festival
At the beginning of the festival a man played the guitar. It was a nice entry, very sad but beautiful. Then the presenter explained the course of the event and gave us a little summary of the book “Kissing the Rain”.
After that the author Kevin Brooks and Oliver Rohrbeck, who read some passages in German, came up to the stage. First of all, Kevin Brooks introduced himself with some funny jokes. He referred to the similarities with Oliver Rohrbeck for example.
The author began to read the beginning of his book “Kissing the Rain”, in which a fat boy called Moo always stands on a bridge and watches the cars driving fast on the expressway. But one day he becomes an eyewitness of a car accident which could have also been a murder.
Oliver Rohrbeck continued reading the book with a passage in German. He is the dubbing speaker of Justus Jonas from The Three ??? and of Ben Stiller. That was very funny to hear.
The storyline of the book gave us a very interesting impression of being a fat and teased boy. It also showed how life can change from one day to the other.
After the reading we could ask the author things we would like to know about him and his book. It was very interesting to get to know something about the personality of Kevin Brooks. Although he studied some difficult subjects, for example philosophy, he worked at a gas station, in a zoo and was a punk rocker. Interesting is also that he didn’t start writing until he was forty.
In our opinion it was very nice and interesting but the reading passages were a little too long so it was a bit difficult to concentrate on the reading the whole time.
written by Fay S. and Franziska O.
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Our excursion
On September, 7th we visited the ``International Literaturefestival’’ in Berlin-Schöneberg. We went there by ourselves and met at 9:45 AM in front of the ”Haus der Berliner Festspiele’’. There were many other groups from other schools who also wanted to visit this event.
The event was about a book writer named Kevin Brooks, who just wrote a new book. This new book ”Kissing the Rain’’ was the reason for the reading.
Kevin Brooks and the famous actor Oliver Rohrbeck (the German voice of Justus Jonas (???) and Ben Stiller) read some parts of Kevin Brook´s new book ”Kissing the Rain”. Kevin Brooks read the original parts in English whereas Oliver R. read in German. The style of writing of his book appears young as he uses slang language. Although Kevin Brooks read the parts in English, they were quite easy to understand.
After the reading of the book, we had time to ask some questions. We could raise our hands and we got a microphone, before we started asking our questions. But most of us were to shy. Because we got prepared for the event with summaries of the book and a short biography of the author, we were able to ask something.
Kevin Brook´s book ”Kissing the Rain” is about an overweight boy, who is bullied at school by his mates. His hobby is watching the traffic go by from a bridge over the local expressway. He coins a few new games to disport himself in his free time. But suddenly one day he notices a murder. that’s where his dilemma starts.
Altogether we enjoyed the excursion to this event and it was very well organised. The presentation was amusing and the schedule was good. Kevin Brooks is a very interesting person and we enjoyed listening to his novel. With this event he encouraged us to read his exciting book.
written by Charity G. and Elisabeth S.
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On September, 7th we were at the ”International Literature Festival.“
At the beginning the presenter, a young lady, introduced the author of “Kissing the Rain”, Kevin Brooks and the German actor Oliver Rohrbeck, who read some parts of the book in German. Then she told us something about the progress of the following hours and after that the reading began.
At first, Mr Brooks explained how he got the idea of the boy “Moo” in “Kissing the Rain” and after that he read the first part of the book. The next part of “Kissing the Rain” was read by Mr Rohrbeck in German. Both men read very well and the English parts were as easy to understand as the German parts. After more explanations from Kevin Brooks, a second part was read out.
The book is written very nicely. The author used a young and informal language, so you can better identify with the main character. But I’m not really interested in those types of stories.
After the reading the audience could ask some questions to Kevin Brooks, who was really committed to answer the questions extensively. He made some jokes and seems to be very friendly, so the whole atmosphere was quite relaxed.
written by Thea F. and Jana P.
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Kevin Brooks at the International Literature Festival
On September the 7th my class and I were visiting the 7th International Literature Festival in Berlin.
We were looking forward to see the English author of novels for young people Kevin Brooks, who was going to read out of his new book “Kissing the Rain” there.
After a nice short song of a guitar player, the presenter gave a speech to welcome us and Kevin Brooks himself came in. As another guest the German actor Oliver Rohrbeck was also there to support the author.
During the next two hours they both read passages out of “Kissing the Rain” and at the end of the reading students had the chance to ask Brooks some questions, which was quite well used and the writer also gave detailed answers.
I think for all of us the whole event was a nice chance to get to know a famous author that addresses our age group in his books and to listen to a real Englishman who doesn’t try to speak German with us and it gave us the great opportunity of hearing good English for a longer period of time.
Of course after some time sitting in the seats in the crowded hall it was quite difficult to concentrate and to try to get the things the writer was talking about but it was ok and there was also some nice joking in the audience or on stage.
When some students asked Kevin Brooks their questions at the end of the reading, he made sure we all learned a lot about the whole procedure between the start of writing a text and finally the selling of a complete book in the stores and the long way of developing from an unknown student to an experienced author.
In the book itself there were some pretty interesting parts about the psyche of young people. Brooks was especially demonstrating how a boy feels like when he gets to be the victim of bullying at school and the author described the boy’s way to escape out of this “rain”.
Of course the writer also showed how much bravery you sometimes need to tell the world the truth when you have dangerous people around you that don’t want you to do this but he nevertheless managed to tell us these things without giving away the end of the book and how the boy finally solves his problems.
At the end of the presentation I was quite exhausted but I think I’ve learned a lot and I will have a look if there isn’t a book of Kevin Brooks I could buy.
written by Sophia B.
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My day started very horribly, because as I woke up I noticed that it was too late.
I hurried to get the right S-Bahn. When I arrived all doors were closed...I was too late!
But ”thank God“ I could enter the lecture room because of my cleverness. After the friendly presenter explained what the lecture of Kevin Brooks was about, Kevin Brooks read some parts of his book in Englisch and a famous German actor called Oliver Rohrbeck read some other exciting parts in German....that was very interesting and funny! After the author presented his book ”Kissing the Rain“ we discussed the different parts of the book and every pupil was able to ask some interesting questions. The past of the author was also very interesting and I was very surprised about the jobs he had when he was younger. All in all, the day was very interesting and the author was very likeable and funny.... Thank you for the nice day, Mrs. Tomiak☺!
written by Oscar F.
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International Literature Festival
On Friday we were at the International Literature Festival.
At the beginning of the festival there was a guy who played a little song on his guitar. I think that was good, because so the people were not loudly.
The woman who presented the festival was very friendly and it was good that she explained everything to us, because some of us were there for the first time. She calmed us, because she said that it is not bad if we cannot understand anything and that we can ask, but some pupils did not have the heart to say ‘What did he say?’. So they didn’t understand what he was talking about.
When the author came he told us a little bit about the book, that was easy to understand and he struggled to make us understand what he was talking about. Sometimes when he talked too quickly it was difficult to follow him, but it was interesting to listen to him. When he was reading a passage of his book 'Kissing the Rain' I had to pay attention to understand everything.
It was a good idea, that Oliver Rohrbeck was at the festival and was reading some pages from the book in German. So you could relax a little bit from English. But I think that the reading took too long and so you couldn't concentrate any more.
I really liked that the pupils could ask the author what they wanted to and he answered most of the questions, but sometimes his answers were too long and you couldn't follow him. And when you couldn't concentrate any more it was very stressful and also boring, because you were sitting there and he was talking and talking, but you couldn't understand everything he was saying.