Emma Doesn't Believe in Fairies

with: Elias Linnekuhl (illustrator)
Reading and conversation | presented by Thalia | recommended from age 7

Emma is eleven, finds school exhausting, and believes in things she can observe, touch, or study: plants, snails, animals, the overgrown park next door. She doesn't believe in fairies. Until a strange insect lures her deep into a blackberry thicket - and she suddenly shrinks to the size of a mouse, winged creatures flutter above her head, and the fairy world is far from pleased to have a human in its midst.

In Cornelia Funke's new children's book "Emma Doesn't Believe in Fairies," the adventure leads into a world that lies right beside us yet is often overlooked: in grasses, flowers, thorns, and everything not made by humans. Emma learns to speak with plants and animals - and discovers that this world is under threat, and wonder brings responsibility.

For the Harbour Front Literature Festival, Cornelia Funke comes to Hamburg together with her illustrator Elias Linnekuhl. Linnekuhl studied illustration in Hamburg, bringing scientific and fantastical themes together in his images, and is part of Funke's Artist-in-Residence programme. Together they tell stories of fairies, foxes, and blackberries, of drawing, writing, and inventing.

Cornelia Funke has inspired generations of children to read through "The Thief Lord," "Inkheart," and "The Dragon Rider"; in 2020 she received the German Youth Literature Prize for her lifetime achievement. The event is aimed at children from age 7 and their parents.