Stella Dreis

Stella Dreis / Was macht die Nacht (What the Night Does)
Author: Dirk Gieselmann, publisher Thienemann Verlage, 2023
A father is putting his child to sleep. “...But... Dad? / Yes? / What actually happens while I’m sleeping? / Oh, the strangest things! I’ll tell you.” This is much more than a good night book – it’s a night book. And much more happens at night than we imagine. Dirk Gieselmann’s remarkable text meets a masterful translation with Stella Dreis’s illustrations. They duplicate each other in their poetics and surrealism. And this is good. The artist does not make illustrations, exactly; these are paintings in countless shades of black, illuminated by lights that pierce with rays, reflections, and nimbuses. We need time before our eye is accommodated in these dark, diffuse spaces to discover the strange subjects there. But the narrative moves like clockwork, and every hour immerses us in stories and images born of fathomless fantasy. A whale rises to the surface of a swimming pool, lampreys bend down to the ground to drink water from puddles, and the wind sweeps the sky, to paint a new picture.

Was macht die Nacht (What the Night Does)

Author: Dirk Gieselmann
Illustrator: Stella Dreis
2023
Thienemann Verlage
40 pages
250 x 319, hardback
ISBN 978-384-890-209-5

Was macht die Nacht (What the Night Does)

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Stella Dreis

Stella Dreis

Stella Dreis was born and raised in Bulgaria, but lives in Heidelberg, Germany. She graduated in fashion design in Hamburg and now works as a freelance illustrator. Her first book was published in 2008 in the Netherlands. In 2012, Phoenix Yard Books published her authored book Happiness is a Watermelon on Your Head in a verse translation by Daniel Hahn. The book was enthusiastically received by critics and readers alike. Numerous publications by both German and international publishing houses followed (Thienemann, Nilpferd, Kunstanstifter, cbj, Leykam, Aladin). Among the awards she has received are the Troisdorfer Bilderbuchpreis for an illustrated book, the Hasselt Publication Award, the Golden Plaque at the Bratislava Illustration Biennale, and the City of Vienna Award. Her latest illustrations are for the books Wie ich die Welt mir träume (Melanie Laibl, Nilpferd, 2023) and Was macht die Nacht? (Dirk Gieselmann, Aladin, 2023), awarded the Deutscher Kinderbuchpreis, 2023, Sonderpreis Illustration. In 2024, she was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA).

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