The fact remains that there will be no Catholic children’s and youth book awards this year. The permanent council of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference continues to refuse to award the title “Paper Piano” by Elisabeth Steinkellner with the illustrations by Anna Gusella (Beltz & Gelberg). Nevertheless, the dispute over the book leads to fundamental innovations.
The story about a young person from precarious backgrounds deals with transsexuality and non-traditional family constellations. The jury wanted to honor the story, the bishops canceled the award ceremony, and members of the jury protested. To this day, the Bishops’ Conference has not commented on the reasons for its rejection, even in response to inquiries from the SZ, it only said in a very general way that the book was not compatible with the statutes of the award.
After loud protest – critical media reports, one Signature campaign of many well-known youth book authors and the announcement that circles close to the church will unite own price plan to go to the “paper piano” – the statutes for the price have now been changed at the last conference of bishops. The jury made up of literary scholars, religious educators and booksellers will in future be able to decide independently and no longer needs the consent of the bishops.