Welche Prüfungsaufgaben in der diesjährigen Realschul- oder Hauptschulabschlussprüfung in Baden-Württemberg zum Debütroman Nach vorn, nach Süden abgefragt werden, darauf kann Sarah Jäger am 15. Januar 2024 in ihrer Lesung an der Johannes-Brenz-Gemeinschaftsschule auch keine Antwort geben. Und sie kennt sich mit dem 2020 erschienenen Jugendbuch aus – immerhin hat sie es geschrieben.
The author from North Rhine-Westphalia presents her book to the prospective graduates, reads individual passages from it, explains scenes and projects theater sequences from Theater Heilbronn in the stage version by Nicole Buhr and Sarah Speiser. For three quarters of an hour, the young people have the opportunity to once again put themselves in the shoes of the characters Can, Marie, Otto and Lena, who are the same age, and join them on a journey south to find the missing Jo.
In a second part, the students ask questions and can thus expand their own reading knowledge and get to know the author’s profession.
The reading was initiated by Kathleen Uttrodt, a teacher at the Johannes-Brenz-Gemeinschaftsschule. The costs were covered by the cultural office of the city of Schwäbisch Hall, the city library, the Johannes-Brenz-Gemeinschaftsschule and the Schulzentrum Ost. Dorothea Lebrecht from the city library was responsible for the on-site organization.
When asked why she wrote the book, Sarah Jäger replies: “I didn’t want to convey anything profound. My main aim was for people to have fun reading and enjoy the summer feeling of the story”.
She also lived up to this claim in the reading. With snow outside the school building, the summer feeling wasn’t really there, but it was definitely fun to listen to her.
