Milan Gather (2021) / When his parents work – and they work a lot – Balthasar visits his grandmother Monika. They bake cakes, solve crossword puzzles and maybe Grandma Monika also has chocolate in her hiding place – “from the little ones, from the good guys”. But today everything is different than usual. Balthasar is allowed to stay with his grandmother and he notices that she is even more forgetful than usual. The words seem to tumble out of her head and suddenly she doesn’t even know how old she is anymore. Out of confusion comes a game. Balthasar slips into different roles for Grandma Monika and travels with her through the world of her memories: What did Grandma Monika actually do? Has she always baked this much cake? And how did she actually meet Grandpa Konradin? Milan Gather tells the story of an eight-year-old’s relationship with his grandmother, who suffers from dementia, in a sensitive, fast-paced and consistent manner from a child’s perspective. For the text he was awarded the Mülheim Children’s Pieces Prize 2022.