214 PAGES

Born in Budapest in 1974, Judit Berg worked for a time, following graduation, as a journalist on cultural affairs before she gave birth to three daughters. Since then, she has become a children�s story writer, also producing plays and becoming involved with puppet theatre. Among her books for nursery-school toddlers that have been published to date are Hisztimesék (Hissy-fit Tales), Micsoda idő! (What Weather!), and Tündér biciklin (On a Fairy Bicycle). This, the author�s first full-length storybook, was arguably the best Hungarian children�s book of 2006 and is aimed at children in the age-bracket 6 to 12 years. It is a full-blooded adventure story whose main protagonists are mice, rats, gophers and dormice, to say nothing of a vole, a squirrel wizard, and a guinea-pig. Then there is a giant octopus which drags ships down into the depths of the sea and a dragon which eats them, since Rumini is, at root, a sailor�s yarn. Our friends, the mice, are shipping a rich cargo to the dormouse king in a vessel called the �Queen of the Wind�, but no end of adventures lie in store for them. They have to sail across the Gum Sea, through the Dragon Straits and get past Dump Island, to mention just some of hazards that they face early on in the voyage. The Rumini of the title, along with his friend Baliko, is a deck-boy. He is a scatterbrain who is always coming up with fresh brainwaves in his desire for adventure. He almost comes to grief, too, since he is captured by pirates (the rats) and comes within an ace of being sold into slavery. He manages to escape in the end, with a bit of help from his friend and fellow sailors. The �Queen of the Wind� accomplishes her mission too, though that is far from straightforward. In the big closing scene of the story the dormouse king sees that justice is done and sets the world right. Rumini is, therefore, an action-packed story, full of unexpected twists and fabulous detours. With her superb sense of drama, handling of dialogue and characterisation, the author provides children with a tale that is every bit as gripping as an adventure film, and Rumini deserves a place among children�s favourite animal characters. �In her first full-length storybook Judit Berg shows that she knows precisely how the tension can be screwed higher, how to tweak her readers� interest, how to build up the adventures in a systematic fashion.� Csaba Károlyi, Élet és Irodalom