Me and the Robbersons

This children’s novel contest winner is just as fresh and anarchic as the best children’s novels should be.

The bandit leader Wild Carl stole Maisie away on an impulse – normally when the Robbersons rob cars, they only steal candy and other things to eat, barbies and magazines. Maisie, who was on a trip to her grandma’s house, came along almost by accident, to keep the bandit family’s children Hele and Charlie company. Maisie’s shock changes quickly to understanding. She thinks it’s fun going down the road at breakneck speed, stopping to swim whenever you want, stealing candy, running from the police – and from her father – playing Yahtzee, eating outdoors, and sleeping in a tent. For the Robbersons, money is nothing but “mouse farts”. But during a summer party they accidentally reveal that they possess a considerable treasure, and they end up with the police and some other bandits hot on their trail. After all the chaotic revels, Hilda, the Robberson mother, starts to yearn for her own bed, Charlie the bookworm starts to miss school, and Hele, who keeps the stolen barbies tuned up, is planning yet another incarnation of villainy.

Me and the Robbersons’ rights have been sold to twenty countries.