Picture Books

by Wiebke Oeser & Will Gmehling

It was an ordinary day when God turned up. A place like many others, between the tower blocks, where the bins are placed. The boy on the swings immediately saw that it was God; this bloke in the old jacket and weird hat.

When the boy joined God for a walk, he wasn’t afraid of anything, not even of the guy next door. Without getting tickets, they took the bus to the supermarket where the boy’s mother works at the till. Without paying, God got ice cream for the boy and himself, and when he touched the mother, she briefly shimmered in thousands of colours. They joined the father at the football pitch, where he was meeting the other men, who were also without jobs. God smoked with them and they talked about the things that didn’t work out—in football and in life.

On the way home, God untied a forgotten dog that followed him. When the boy had said his goodbyes, God and dog walked away and looked just like everyone else who was out and about.

Will Gmehling puts God right into the middle of life. Quite unspectacular he sees him where there is attention, care and trust and allows for the magic in these daily-life experiences to become noticeable. Wiebke Oeser’s coloured pencil drawings strike the right note of the story; they narrate unobtrusively and with warmth.

• One of the 7 Best Books for Young Readers – October 2016

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 245 x 245 mm | July 2016 | 5+

All rights available

[original German title: Gott, der Hund und ich]

SAMPLE PAGES

Merken

by Britta Gotha & Hanna Jansen

Even though bears of various kinds lived in the town—black and white, striped and nicely coiffed—one of them always stood out: Linus. His fur was so scraggy that you could only see the tip of his nose. He didn’t work and danced through the streets like a spinning top. This bear was a hair-raising nuisance.

He was called lazy and locked up. When asked about his behaviour by the bear judge, Linus admitted not to know the reason and that he would have to look for the answer. So he was called a fool and chased out of town.

Linus, who couldn’t help but be happy, was almost even happier when he lived far from the town. Here, he encountered travelling bears. They also wanted to know who he was and why he was here. When they heard that he was looking for the answer, they thought it clever and henceforth they talked about the wise bear outside the town gates. This is how Linus came to be the great advisor of all travellers. He, who was really only a scraggy, happy bear.

Britta Gotha has created images full of light for Hanna Jansen’s story and has populated them with rather amazing bears.

“A story about being different, with wit and poetry both in the text and the images.” – Badische Zeitung

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 297 x 210 mm | July 2016 | 4+

Rights sold: Chinese (simplified)

[original German title: Linus im Glück]

SAMPLE PAGES

Merken

Merken

Merken

by Hans-Christian Schmidt & Andreas Német

The most terrible monster in the whole world is here! Everyone runs away, screaming in fear! But no, not everyone: we, the brave picture book readers are not afraid. We will not be scared by a grimace and hideous face!

The monster is trying harder and harder, tries to startle us, tries a disguise and even calls upon other monsters for help … But that is also of no use: we are simply not scared! The monster is baffled.

Finally, we turn the tables: we scare the monster! And it is obvious who will be running away now …

This picture books guarantees terrific fun, because it involves its little readers in the action and turns them into the main protagonist. Unequalled!

‘Interactive books’ that enable children to seemingly communicate with the book’s characters are a new trend and are particularly funny. It doesn’t matter if the texts are read by an adult or if the child is a beginning reader engaging in the game. The book by Andreas Német and Hans-Christian Schmidt let’s the child act in a self-confident manner: It is not afraid of the monsters, but instead the child frightens an entire horde of monsters. This results in a lot of laughter and leaves [the reader] with a wonderful feeling as well as the wish to start all over again. – Projekt Mami – picture book tip, October 2016

Many great ideas for a book with extremely felicitous design and surprising twists. Highly recommended. – AJUM

Huge fun for monster hunters, monster fans and of course for all little scaredy cats – because everyone is allowed to join in! – www.familie.de

This picture book could just as easily be entitled ‘The Greatest Fun’! Because that’s what it is: Interactive, full of relish and screamingly funny. The most terrible monster in the whole world is herre! Everyone is running away in fear. But no, not everyone: We, the brave picture book readers, are not afraid. We won’t be scared by grimaces and terrible faces! The monster tries harder and harder, tries to startle us, tries in disguise, even calls on other monsters for their help … but all in vain: We are not scared! The monster is at a loss. Finally the tables are turned: We scare the monster! And now it is obvious who will be running away! This picture book is huge fun, because it fully involves its little readers in the plot and finally makes them the main protagonist. This creation by the two picture book artists from Dresden is unequalled. – www.hofheim.de/kultur

Moritz Verlag | 96 pp | 230 x 230 mm | Aug 2016 | 4+

Rights sold: Chinese (simplified)

[original German title: Das schrecklichste Monster der Welt]

SAMPLE PAGES

Merken

Merken

Merken

by Andreas Röckener

A picture book for close inspection

When you open this book you find an abundance of images with challenges and questions that require a very close look at the illustrations. The scenes are set on a sheet of floating ice in the sea or in the busy jungle. They sometimes revolve around little octopuses, at other times around bric-a-brac from the car boot sale—nothing is as it should be. There is someone breaking ranks, names have to invented, questions answered.

Andreas Röckener has come up with a multilateral picture book that challenges, engages and entertains children in an intelligent manner.

Moritz Verlag | hc | 64 pp | 213 x 215 mm | Feb 2016 | 5+

All rights available

[original title: Such mich hier, such mich dort!]

Also by Andreas Röckener:

by Stephanie Gustai & Claudia Gliemann

Caterpillar—cocoon—butterfly: this is nature’s clear-cut course and fascination. But Wilma doesn’t want to venture outside. It is so comfy and cosy inside her cocoon! Terrible dangers are likely to lurk outside. Monsters! But you won’t know if that’s true unless you have checked and seen for yourself. That takes courage. You have
to be brave to set off into a new and unknown world. Out of the familiar into the unfamiliar. Will Wilma dare to venture outside?

Monterosa | hc | 32 pp | 250 x 320 mm | Dec 2015 | 4+

All rights available

[original title: Wilma Willnichraus]

by Lena Hesse

Paul, the little fly, can do a lot of tricks and he’s convinced that he is something really special. When Martha the tortoise gets tired of watching him, Paul suddenly realises that there might be more important things in life.

Lena Hesse is one of those rare individuals whose sharp story-telling abilities are only matched by her honed illustration skills. In this lovable story, she transports us into the world of two young creatures—one overly confident little fly and a tortoise, quite unaware of her abilities—and shows us that everyone has something special about them. Pay close attention to the adorable illustrations that are full of witty details!

Edition bi:libri | hc | 24 pp | 216 x 216 mm | 2013 | 3+

Rights sold: Chinese (compl.)

[original title: Was Besonderes]

Merken

by Lena Hesse

Chicken is delighted, because she gets a box for her birthday. But hey! There’s nothing in it!

Lena Hesse has once again succeeded in telling a wonderful story in very few words. The imaginative and funny text is only outdone by Lena Hesse’s playful illustrations. The reduced, yet immensely expressive images emphasize ALL the things that one can do with a box of NOTHING.

Edition bi:libri | hc | 24 pp | 216 x 216 mm | 2015 | 3+

Rights sold: Chinese (compl.)

[original title: Eine Kiste nichts]

Merken

by Christiane Pieper 

Josephine and the bear have once again caught the travel bug. The two wanderers from “Zig-zag Everywhere” won’t set off until Peer has arrived. They meet him at the harbour, where he swiftly rolls down the gangway of a big ship: Peer joins them in his wheelchair. And just like the last time: no place is too far for them, they travel all the way south to see the giraffes and their desire for action is unstoppable. They crawl and brachiate, hop and roll. And Peer is always at the centre of the action.

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 235 x 235 mm | 2001 | 2+

All rights available

[original title: Josefine, der Bär und Peer]

by Christiane Pieper

Little Josephine and the big bear are travelling the land, in a very good temper: once straight, then crooked, once left, then right, once quiet, then singing, once trailing, then springing. Text and pictures are so urging and motivating that children cannot help but imitate the two jolly wanderers.

Illustrated with verve and humour this book is already appropriate for the youngest.

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 235 x 235 mm | 2015 | 2+

All rights available

[original title: Kreuz und quer, Josefine und der Bär]

by Dorina Tessmann & Jutta Langreuter

Little Sophie sets off, on her own. She knows where she wants to go and she knows how to get there. But is that enough?

It doesn’t take long and something brown comes around the corner. A bear. There’s imminent danger—but Sophie doesn’t turn back. She knows where the bear with the big teeth has its soft spot! And the same goes for dangerous lions. Or big boys who block her way.

Sophie takes her wild opponents by surprise with disarming kindliness or cleverly attacks their vanity. She uses the moment of her opponents’ confusion to disappear. This is how she safely arrives at her destination, but she has to admit that it didn’t feel quite as cool as it seemed.

Dorina Tessman draws Sophie with a clever twinkle in her eyes—like a female Wickie, who never underestimates the danger, but remains sufficiently free to cheekily play out her sagacity and intuition.

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 297 x 220 mm | July 2015 | 4+

All rights available

[original title: Sofie geht los!]

by Tobias Krejtschi & Will Gmehling

The only delightful thing about Cleopatra is her name. She is a laughing hyaena with everything that comes with a hyaena: a pungent smell, shrill laughter, spotted shaggy fur. Cleopatra runs a little shop at the end of the world, right next to the garbage dump. This is where she finds everything she needs in life: bones with little bits attached for breakfast and wonderful things for her shop. Real dust from Paris, bells without clappers, insoles. But she waits in vain for customers.

Until Ed turns up out of nowhere, who doesn’t just buy the goggles without the lenses, but also enjoys keeping Cleopatra company. But even though Ed makes her life bright and sociable, Cleopatra more than ever dreams of a wild country that she has never seen. Of hot winds and glowing sunsets. Unable to resist the alluring visions, Cleopatra says goodbye and sets off on her journey.

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 220 x 230 mm | July 2015 | 4+

All rights available

[original title: Kleopatra]

by Nadia Budde

The crossover between a human being and an animal is blurry. In any case the crossover between some people and animals.

Who doesn’t know the swimmer at the open air pool who emerges from the water with a bald round head, round eyes and a large moustache and resembles a popular sea animal so amazingly that you rub your eyes in wonder. A seal! Or the mouse-like, moth-like and duck-resembling types; the ones who are frog-mouthed or goat or predator-containing. They do exist!

Peter Hammer Verlag  | hc | 32 pp | 200 x 250 mm | 2013 | 3+

Rights sold: French, Korean

[original title: Und irgendwo gibt es den Zoo]

by Lena Hesse

Cat Fred and goose Anabel have enjoyed a wonderful summer in each other’s company. But then autumn arrived. Anabel started to get cold and had to fly south. But Anabel can’t bear to be without Fred. And Fred misses Anabel, too.

After all, spring follows winter. And it turns out that Anabel and Fred weren’t really that far from each other, because they were always in each other’s thoughts.

A heart-warming story about friendship, separation, desire—and love.

Now also a Cartoon Movie & Theatre Play

The cartoon movie won the Prix Éco Bambins and is shown in France, Poland, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Iran, Pakistan and Canada. Further countries to follow!

hc | 36 pp | 282 x 212 mm | 4+

Rights sold: Korean, Russian

by Sonja Bougaeva & Viola Rohner 

You don’t have to be big and fat in order to know what it would feel like. Not to fit into your clothes and not to fit in anywhere. This is what Jelena suffered.

Jelena was so fat and so tall that she didn’t fit into her mother’s small shooting gallery. And as the funfair travelled from one place to the next, she had to repeat every school class. She no longer fitted behind the tiny school desks. Jelena had only two friends: Mrs Sweet from the candyfloss stall and Mr Power from the ring-the-bell. Once none of the funfair visitors wanted to hit it, even though there was a balloon to be won for every metre it would rise. That’s when Jelena picked up the hammer and hit it so hard that the picker flew right into the sky! She won all the balloons and when Mr Power had tied them all to Jelena, she became very light. So light that she began to lift off …

This poetic picture book emphatically tells of the feeling of heavy earthiness and the uplifting experience of lightness, but also of the discovery of one’s own strength. Sonja Bougaeva bathes the soft tones of the narration in atmospheric colours. – Bücherlust, April 2015

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 300 x 210 mm | Feb 2015 | 5+

All rights available

[original title: Jelena fliegt]

by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Ulrike Möltgen  

In bygone times, when this and that was still missing – the humps on the camel’s back or the elephant’s trunk for example – there were no armardillos either. Rudyard Kipling has resolved the greatest mysteries in his famous Just So Stories – amongst them the puzzle surrounding the origin of the armadillos:

The hedgehog and his friend the tortoise lived on the banks of the Amazon. They ate snails and salad. Which was fine. But a spotted jaguar lived in the same place. He was a little simpleminded, but very ravenous and therefore dangerous. Even more so as his mother had taught him how to eat even prickly hedgehogs and armoured tortoises without any damage. But the two were smart and managed to confuse the jaguar so much that the poor wildcat was no longer able to remember his mother’s advice and ended up returning home hungry and with prickles in his paws. Yet the jaguar remained dangerous because his mother was a good and relentless teacher. The hedgehog and the tortoise had to come up with a better plan …

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 305 x 280 mm | 2014 | 5+

All rights available

[Die Entstehung der Gürteltiere]

by Tobias Krejtschi

• A very special leporello climbing tour!
• 2.75 metres long!

In the North, where you find elks and dwarfs in knitted hats, there is a tree in the woods. At the very bottom, right by the roots lives a dwarf in his cave – this is the root dwarf. At the very top, right in the swaying tree top lives the treetop dwarf The root dwarf would love to go all the way to the top. The treetop dwarf dreams of the dark cave at the very bottom. So both set off: one going upwards, the other downwards. Following informative encounters with the other occupants of the tree, they finally arrive at their destinations. And then? Well, they squat down and are happy. But the calm is deceiving. Because if you turn the leporello, the climbing

tour starts afresh!

• Leselotse Recommendation

A wonderful leporello with many wow effects! -Familie & Co

Content and form make a wonderful liaison in this book – Buchjournal

Peter Hammer Verlag | picture book | 2012 | 3+

Rights sold: Chinese (complex & simplified)

[original title: Wipfelwärts & Wurzelwärts]

by Ulf K. & Oliver Scherz 

• The story of an incredible transformation
• Moving and funny!

Herman is a guard dog and always angry. He barks at everyone who dares come near him. Not even the birds settle in his garden. But then Stig arrives on his bicycle. He wants to know what is really the matter with Herman. Once he manages to silence the yapping dog, he finds out that Herman doesn’t really like his life as a guard dog and that he really wants to be something quite different: a dancer. That Herman once more digs up the old ballet slippers is due to Stig, the real hero of this story, because Stig doesn’t for a moment doubt that a sinister fellow with a big mouth can be sensitive, too. A moving and funny story that orchestrates the crazy idea of the transformation of a fierce mutt into a dreamy dancer with relish.

Peter Hammer Verlag | picture book | hc | 24 pp | 190 x 290 mm | July 2012 | 3+

All rights available

[original title: Der fürchterliche Hermann]

by Dorota Wünsch & Sabine Lipan  

Four days left until Christmas. Mr Melcher doesn’t like to think about it. Being alone is particularly sad at Christmas. Suddenly a gust of wind blows his cap off his head. The wind and the flying hat round up a mixed group of people and it is soon evident that nobody will be on their own this Christmas. A cheerful story about Christmas without the usual clichés and with the wonderful witty illustrations by Dorota Wünsch.

A brilliant picture book, illustrated with daring strokes, without sentimentality, but with a lot of heart and humour. – Findefuchs

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 23.2 x 23.2 cm or 15 x 15 cm | 4+

Rights sold: Italian

[original title: Die Weihnachtsmütze]

by Dorota Wünsch & Viola Rohner 

The little girl and her grandfather spend a lot of time together. They look at the trains at the station and watch the animals in the zoo, they buy bread on the market and weed grandfather’s garden. But whatever they decide to do, the old man always notes: maybe this is the last time we do this.

But one summer’s day the little girl proposes to go swimming and finds out that this is grandfather’s first time and that he has never learnt how to swim!

A warmhearted, wonderfully illustrated picture book about the young and the old and the happiness that comes from being together.

Peter Hammer Verlag | picture book | hc | 24 pp | 29.7 x 21 cm | 2011 | 4+

Rights sold: Chinese (simplified), Lithuanian

[original title: Wie Großvater schwimmen lernte]

by Susanne Göhlich   

Juri has finished his rocket and together with his sausage dog Laika sets out on his first flight into space. Everything seems perfect when they are suddenly drawn into an enormous storm in outer space. Having landed on an unknown star, they find that the rocket has been badly damaged. To make matters worse, they discover that the storm was caused by a giant monster who they need to steer well clear of. Will they be able to fix the rocket and leave the planet without attracting the monster’s attention?

A wonderful picture book for boys that deals with technics, being smart, ideas and companionship. It is a point in honour that in the end, the two astronauts manage a safe landing behind their house.

It is rare to find a true adventure story in a picture book. Susanne Göhlich’s humour and the dramatic art of the story are well balanced. – NZZ

A galactic adventure for all space fans! – Olli und Molli

Moritz Verlag | hc | 40 pp | 216 x 286 mm | 2011 | 4+

Rights sold: Danish, Korean

[original title: Juri fliegt zu den Sternen]

by Dorota Wünsch & Viola Rohner

A wild thing has been waiting for Kira on her way to kindergarten as of late! It sits in a tree, has sharp teeth and is frightening. Kira would rather die than walk past the Wild once more. So she accompanies her dad to the office instead. It is boring at the office and all she can do is draw pictures. And so Kira draws a picture of the Wild, as it sits caught and locked up inside a jam jar. And really, the next morning it is no longer there!

But when Kira is provoked by two cheeky boys who steal her sandwich in kindergarten, she wishes for the Wild to be back. And indeed: at her disposal when she calls it, the Wild earns her respect from the two boys. From now on, things go really well with the boys and Kira doesn’t have to call upon the Wild again.

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 24 pp | 300 x 230 mm | July 2013 | 3+

All rights available

[original title: Das Wild im Marmeladenglas]

by Lilli Messina 

When grandpa was a child everything was very different. There weren’t so many houses, milk came directly from the cow, everybody knew each other, and cars were pulled by horses. Pepe follows with great interest as his grandpa explains everything, but he understand his grandpa’s explanations in his own particular way.

The book humorously and gently addresses the difficulty old people face when trying to make younger generations understand the world they grew up in.

A book about how the world changes and the clash of different generations.

Takatuka | hc | 32 pp | 280 x 190 mm | 2012 | 3+

Rights sold: Danish, Portuguese

[original title: Cuando el yayo era peque]

by Barbara Nascimbeni & Nasrin Siege   

When Emanuel and Bilali wake up in the morning, there is no breakfast waiting for them. The boys live on the streets. When they are hungry they have to look for something to eat. Otherwise their empty stomach strats to growl like a lion. Fortunately, the boys have a lot of experience how to get tasty tomatoes and sweet tea. Apart from that, Emmanuel and Bilali do the same things as other children: they play and laugh in the sun and imagine their future when they will be a busdriver or president.

A wonderfully illustrated picture book about street children – honest, poetic and full of light.

Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 24 x 32cm | 2009 | 5+

Rights sold: Spanish

[original title: Wenn der Löwe brüllt]