The article engages with Katrin Bongard’s Young Adult book ‚Es war die Nachtigall‘ (It was the nightingale [my translation], 2020) from an ecocritical perspective. Given that children’s literature as well as young adult fiction are and, in some ways, have always been particularly interested in ecological questions and that young adults today are the main proponents of the climate movement, the article analyses how Bongard’s novel not only conveys ecological knowledge but also aims to highlight and open up options for action. I focus on the way in which the novel engages with the conflict-laden topic of the hunt and deals with ecological, cultural, and ethical questions. Furthermore, the article stresses that Bongard’s aesthetic strategies in the text, such as the use of multiple perspectives as well as intertextual references (for example to ‚Romeo and Juliet‘), participate in the development of the topic but also highlight the importance of dialogue as a means of communication between conflicting groups. Finally, the article briefly evaluates the extent to which the novel’s thematic preoccupations and poetics make ‚Es war die Nachtigall‘ a suitable candidate for didactic purposes.

Keywords: Ecocriticism, Hunting in Literature, Intertextuality, Young Adult fiction, Animal Studies