Urlaub ahoi

Reading is a vacation for the mind. A vacation at home – how dull is that? The reason doesn’t really matter – whether the parents have too little money or too much work, having to stay home while everyone else eagerly drags their packed suitcases to the sea or the mountains is anything but fun. And to make matters worse, it’s of course raining the whole time. No swimming pool, so a book it is, in bed. And while pages are being turned inside, it rains outside day after day. It rains so much that eventually the ground can’t absorb it anymore. Until a lake forms around the house. A truly wonderful lake. With more water than the South Sea has ever seen. And one day, the house shakes – that’s when the journey begins over the shimmering, wet surface. So it is a vacation after all, in a houseboat, across foreign seas and oceans. All the way to Greenland. And back again. It is a beautiful ode to imagination, to sinking into stories and narratives, to dreaming away to distant places and countries, which Corinna Antelmann captures in her short story. Nadine Kappacher skillfully illustrates it with watercolor, ink, and collage, showing how imagination can make boundaries disappear and how many different, incredibly beautiful shades of blue the sea has. Warning: Longing! I have seen the world and have never left. Tips: Powerfully told about the strength of imagination.