Christopher, don’t be silly and climb down again!
Nobody knows why nine-year-old Christopher has climbed the high rock towering above the village, and why he refuses to climb down. His mother, the priest and neighbours from the village try gradually to persuade him to climb down, but without success. One by one Christopher´s memories are shown to the reader and may reveal what happened before. That Christopher and Alex were longtime inseparable friends, how they searched together for the hidden treasure, how they cared for Christophers´ ill dachshund, how they camped out and how only the hamster, which Alex had received from his father, caused a breach in their friendship. It seems that Christopher will continue to sit on the rock forever. But when Alex finally masters his temper and climbs up to Christopher, both the boys are able to forget about their feeling of injustice and to repair the broken friendship together.
This morning, everything was fine. In school, we sat next to each other like usual. Alex brought his hamster with him. We hid it from the teacher. Then it ran away from us. It was running around under the desks on its little feet. The teacher was writing a problem on the board. "How much is two times nine?" he said out loud. "Eva?" "Hamster," Eva said. "Two times nine is hamster?" the teacher said, surprised, and turned around. The hamster was standing behind him, sniffing some chalk dust that had fallen from the board. "Whose are you?" The teacher bent down to it. "Alex's," said the hamster. Actually, it was Alex who said it, but in such a squeaky voice that the whole class burst out laughing. The teacher picked up the hamster, but it bit him on the finger. "Because of bad behavior, I’m excluding student Hamster from class," the teacher declared. "Fabian, go take him to the janitor!" I went. When I came back, Alex wasn’t talking to me anymore. Not even football during the break. Right after class, he ran to the janitor and took the hamster with him. I waited for Alex. "I’ll unlock your bike for you," I offered. "Mind your own business!" he snapped.
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The book was awarded
the Czech Prize for Children’s
Literature, the Golden Ribbon 2005
and Suk 2004, the Prize
of Czech Teachers.