In many families Christmas Eve is no longer very sacred. Fidgety children, nervous parents. The house must be cleaned, the tree decorated, the duck crispy. The giving of the gifts takes place at an appointed time and deserves its own festive context. This is just what Jonas, Julia and Janni want and that’s why the…
Peter Hammer Verlag
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…
Magnificent Story Between Heaven and Hell When Luci joins the class, it quickly becomes apparent that he is no child like the others. The little horn peaks on his head and his hoof leave little room for doubt: Luci is a young devil straight from hell. Devils, even little ones, can do things others are…
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….
Nadia Budde’s hero is no longer the master in his own house, because he has a permanent resident: the rat. Day after day he finds the rat on his doormat when he gets home; huge and in good humour. Once she’s inside the house, she puts on his slippers and makes herself at home: on…
Little Mehrnousch and her three siblings, children of a surgeon, have a privileged childhood in the lovely city of Isfahan in Iran in the 70s. Like most others, the family celebrates the eviction of the Shah as a fortunate event—little do they expect that the new ruler Ayatollah Chomeini would establish a despotic rule and…
Lisa is a single child. She has a good time with her mum and dad. But all of a sudden she begins to experience most extraordinary things and her mum expects another baby after all. The oddities begin when Lisa’s teacher, Mrs. Fish, seems to be having a doppelgänger. With this look-alike, Lisa goes on…
Whether you are three years of age or a big child: you will immediately take the little lion and the little clown to your heart! This lovely book includes eight little stories about the two children from the circus: How the little lion once urgently had to have its hair cut, but couldn’t sit still…
Africa—with 54 states, more than 1,000 languages and the youngest population of the world—is multicoloured and multifaceted, age-old and modern. This diversity is rarely addressed in Europe’s narrative about the “dark continent”. It clings to the fairy-tale of Africa’s lack of history and political insignificance with incredible tenacity. Current media portraits remain reduced to terrible…
Berlin based comic artist Henning Wagenbreth has discovered a number of ballads in Robert Louis Stevenson’s work that are entirely unknown. Fascinated by the power of these stories, he has translated one of them into German and has illustrated it: The Pirate and the Apothecary—”a jewel filled with colourful facets of good and bad, honour…
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…
Chemistry and Alchemy for the Unafraid When we think of chemistry, we envisage scientists in white lab coats that handle conical flasks and raw chemicals over Bunsen burners in their laboratory. Or we think of complicated formulae which we already failed to understand in school. Who would have thought that today’s white-lab-coats’ chemistry has a…
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…
We all occasionally dream of being a little prettier. Taller, slimmer, a bit more muscular, somewhat blonder. We are not alone with our vanities! Nadia Budde gets a lot of zany characters on the pages of her picture book – neighbours, relatives, friends – and we immediately realize their little imperfections. Too many kilograms, a…
What do philosophers do when they philosophise? Books that deal with philosophy tell of great thinkers, their views and their lives. Philosophising itself remains in the dark. How it works, how it fosters creative and independent thinking, is now demonstrated by Jens Soentgen. He introduces the most popular and effective practices of philosophy, not abstract,…
It is difficult to say what love is. But this much is clear: it is something to do with kissing or so. Two in Love is a little gift book for all those who contemplate love. Wondering who wants to kiss whom and who may or even should do so. Wondering about the before and after. The longing,…
Leonard loves dogs and he knows everything about them. But at the same time he fears nothing as much as dogs. Until one day a little fairy appears on his bed cover and fulfills his biggest wish: she transforms him into a dog. But now something unexpected happens: Leonard the dog fears nothing as much…
Five animals meet in the shade of an old bridge: hyena, rat, spider, bat and toad – the frightful five! They are not there to make any mischievous plans; rather they are all very unhappy because nobody really likes them. But after a while the five become tired of their moaning and make plans to…
A man catches an eagle and brings it up amongst chickens. The eagle eventually lives like the chickens until one day, a naturalist passes by and immediately recognizes the bird as an eagle. That’s where the story begins. by Wolf Erlbruch & James Aggrey Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 215 x…