List: kids

Ronja has had more of an influence on me at the time than most other books. Its effect is lesser now, but that's because it was honestly perfect for me at the time. The strong Ronja, with her wildness and her tenderness and her strength, did her part in carrying me through the less fortunate moments of my childhood. I loved the book to pieces. It taught me about strength and loyalty and self-reliance when I needed them.

Märchen

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1989 · read 2007-05-01

Lindgren is best known for her books for children: They are beautiful, sometimes hauntingly so. They are deep and won't seem cheap after you grow up. They are always grounded in reality, and everybody talks and acts like a real person.

Mio, My Son

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1954 · read 2001-02-01

Mio, my Mio. A book for children, with heart-breaking beauty. The beauty is in how it uses fairytale and lyrical resonance to spin a story that is both familiar and strange. It meant a lot to me: The unhappy boy who runs away from home, only to find out that he's the prince of a magical realm – but the realm is in trouble. There is love in every word. It's This Is How You Lose The Time War, only for children.

Kalle Blomquist

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1946 · read 1998-09-01

My first, own, serious book! Serious in that it was long, and the book I got for my first day at school. Despite its length – it's a collection of three individual books – I got through it within the first week of school.

Das fliegende Klassenzimmer

by Erich Kästner · published 1933 · read 2001-07-01

It's the one German boarding school novel and I loved it to pieces as a kid. As all Kästner books except for Lottchen it features a transparent self-insert, but it's fine, imo. Most boarding school novels do this, to be honest.

Emil and the Detectives

by Erich Kästner · published 1928 · read 2004-12-01

Charming adventures in Berlin of the 1920s? Children taking on adults together? Wild chases and solidarity? All this, and more. Emil is infinitely relatable as he travels to the big city, is robbed and tries to recover the money. Emil is just a good kid in a bad situation, and seeing him grow and manage to muddle through and make friends is heart-warming.

Herr der Diebe

by Cornelia Funke · published 2000 · read 2001-07-01

Possibly my first good magical realism book. I loved this so much that I took the real name of one of the characters as my alter ego name in adventure stories I was writing at the time.

Max und Moritz. Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen

by Wilhelm Busch · published 1865 · read 2000-01-01

Max and Moritz is an extremely quotable gruesome story of two boys and their pranks. It's written in rhymed couplets, many of which have turned into common sayings because they are witty, sarcastic, or just brutal. They are in many ways an integral part of German culture, I suppose, but more importantly they were an inescapable part of my family's culture. Being able to quote Max & Moritz was a survival skill.

The Neverending Story

by Michael Ende · published 1979 · read 2002-03-01

Neverending – oh, if only! I loved this book as a kid, and there are infinite possibilities for tie-ins (though arguably the book is better off without them).

Coraline

by Neil Gaiman · published 2002 · read 2003-02-01

Coraline is a wonderful book. Terrifying, too. Coraline and her parents move to a new place, where there's nothing apart from the other (strange!) people living in the house. Her parents are busy all day, and she's just left to her own devices. So she wanders around and eventually finds a mirror world, where everything is duplicated, only uncanny and weird – and where she finds parents who love her and have time for her. Now if only they were human.

Die dampfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm von Babel

by Franz Fühmann · published 1978 · read 2000-03-01

Five stars mean a book changed my life. This book changed my life several times, and I'm not sure it's done with me yet. It's about language. It's about philosophy. It's about linguistics. It's about playing with language, and it's about heritage and tradition, and – look, it's perfect for me.

Alarm im Kasperletheater

by Nils Werner, Heinz Behling · published 1958 · read 1998-12-31

And this is how I learnt to read: Too early, to general displeasure, and by this book. It's a beautifully illustrated story with the characters of a Punch-and-Judy show. It's grandma's birthday, and Kasperle (the traditional protagonist) buys doughnuts to celebrate. But! the little devil swings by and steals them, with the wonderful reasoning of "I'm sure these are counted, so he'll know if I'm taking one. If I take one, he'll know – so I'll take them all, and he won't be able to count them to see how many are missing!" All the other characters show up – the girl, the king, the policeman, the crocodile, the robber, and unite in chasing the devil.

Emil in the Soup Tureen

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1963 · read 2001-04-01

Adorable book for kids. Emil is wonderful, as is everybody else. As usual, Astrid Lindgren doesn't flinch away from real life, so Emil is for instance regularly locked away because his parents don't know how to deal with him.

Immer dieser Michel

by Astrid Lindgren · read 2001-12-01

Michel is delightful and sweet and a prankster and a rascal. He's never malicious, but always in the thick of it. I liked him a lot, and have always been impressed how much Lindgren can make me feel like I too live on a farm in the middle of Sweden. It's all so real and true.

Pippi Langstrumpf

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1945 · read 2001-11-01

Joyful is what this book is. Thoroughly joyful, and I'd love to blame it for my anarchist tendencies (but that would probably be unfair).

Tomte Tummetott

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1961 · read 2004-01-01

Pure wholesomeness: Tomte Tumtetott is a spirit(-ish) who lives on the farm, and only comes out at night. He talks to the animals (who understand him) and to the sleeping plants and people. He is kind to everybody and has a good word in every situation. He reminds the sleeping people and animals that spring will come, and is generally very laid back. A calm book for younger children.

Das doppelte Lottchen

by Erich Kästner · published 1949 · read 2001-01-01

Das doppelte Lottchen (English: Lottie and Lisa) is exactly what I loved to read as a child. The story of the twins Liese and Lotte, who were split up soon after birth when their parents separated. Once the two very different girls realise they are twins at a summer camp, they decide to switch places.

Igraine the Brave

by Cornelia Funke · published 1998 · read 2004-02-01

Igraine is a very sweet book for kids. Igraine wants to be a knight, not a boring wizard like everybody else in her family, and she gets her wish – and has to save her family in the process. A bit saccharine in the general tone, possibly, but the execution borders on dry and is just generally sparking joy.

Momo

by Michael Ende · published 1973 · read 2002-07-01

Momo is a weird book: It clearly has the potential to be and to feel very profound. But it was never quite that for me. Maybe it's that the capitalism criticism is just too open and too jarring when mixed with the magical elements? Maybe it's that Momo herself, as a character, always kept her distance to me. I don't know. It's a good book, but it never quite reached "great" for me.

Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer

by Michael Ende · published 1960 · read 1999-05-01

Lukas, and Jim, their steam locomotive Emma, and their shared adventures fascinated me a lot. I remember being read these stories (and drawing in the book) when I was three, and I loved them to pieces. Later at the mature age of five I found out about the marionette theatre version – a four part musical by the wonderful Augsburger Puppenkiste, and I … fanboyed.

Odd and the Frost Giants

by Neil Gaiman · published 2008 · read 2016-06-11

It's a Gaiman fairytale, about a wonderful boy among the vikings and their gods, and that's all you need to know.

Dealing with Dragons

by Patricia C. Wrede · published 1990 · read 2021-10-31

A sweet, sweet book: Princess Cimorene can't be bothered with pesky princess stuff, because she'd much rather learn Latin, or fencing, or cooking, or bookkeeping, or juggling, or literally anything any profession at court could teach her. Frustrated and running from a terrifyingly boring engagement, she runs away and goes to live with a dragon. She's the first princess to do so without being kidnapped first, but things work out pretty well – her practicality sees her ready to deal with magic and sorting the library (plus, extremely sensibly fireproofing herself), but also with annoying knights with a saviour complex, evil wizards and dragon politics.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

by J.K. Rowling · published 1997 · read 2001-09-01

Harry Potter – look, I can't be objective. I grew up on these books. My friends and I could act out entire scenes by heart. I went through the cycle a generation experienced: Love, obsession, disappointment, detachment (in many cases by growing up, in my case by discovering fanfics).

Winnie ille Pu

by A.A. Milne · published 1926 · last read 2022-07-07

This book is, of course, adorable in every way. The dorky bear with his friends in various stages being excitable, exuberant, worried, forgetful, depressed, busy, or superior are delightful and a neat way to keep a child entertained.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain · published 1875 · read 2002-10-01

Probably my first trickster book – I reveled in how clever and witty Tom was. All his tricks, all his deals and feelings felt real and like something to aspire to. I even took his frequent bartering of small items and introduced it at school. It was great fun.

Matilda

by Roald Dahl · published 1988 · read 2004-10-01

Possibly my favourite book by Dahl. While it is needlessly cruel (like all his books), it catered to the nerdy book-loving kid demographic relentlessly, and that was more than fine by me. And now we even have a great Tim Minchin musical, which is another point in favour of the book.

Die rote Zora und ihre Bande

by Kurt Held · published 1941 · read 2007-08-01

Zora is wild and cannot be tamed. Together with her friends, they live on the streets (and in their own hidden secret castle) of Croatia. They steal to survive and have all sorts of adventures with friends, against the autorities, helping some people, hindering others. It even has a truly positive ending, even if it's forced.

Der Räuber Hotzenplotz

by Otfried Preußler · published 1962 · read 1999-09-01

As Alarm im Kasperletheater, this book is a riff off the usual characters of a Punch-and-Judy show. There's the Robber, Hotzenplotz, who opens the book by stealing(!) grandmother's coffee grinder, which is particularly beautiful and plays a melody while you grind the coffee.

Madita

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1960 · last read 2021-01-12

Madita is a somewhat less intense Pippi: she has a younger sister and is up to all sorts of ridiculous nonsense, but doesn't go to society-breaking extremes. Well, usually.

Lotta on Troublemaker Street

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1958 · read 2003-06-01

Lotta and her siblings are some of Lindgren's most adorable characters. Her teddy (which looks suspiciously like a pig, but don't tell her!), her siblings, their games, their whole family – it's all lovely without being overly sweet. Lotta is very real, often angry and finds creative (and not always nice) ways to deal with her anger. And the adults are just that: adult about it. It's great.

Am Samstag kam das Sams zurück

by Paul Maar · published 1980 · read 2000-11-01

The second part of the Sams is not bad, it just doesn't stand out either. I have little memory of the plot, and what I remember is not extremely amazing. Stick with the first part, imo.

Ein Sams für Martin Taschenbier

by Paul Maar · published 1996 · read 2001-08-01

I don't have many memories of this Sams book. I think I had more pity for Martin than for his father, because kids being bullied was relatable, whereas adults who were bullied looked weird and even contemptuous to me. But at the same time, I think both Martin and his father were self-inserts, and Paul Maar just is a better adult than kid. Or he just had forgotten about being a kid.

Neue Punkte für das Sams

by Paul Maar · published 1992 · read 2001-06-01

Yet another Sams book – I didn't really like the follow-ups. The original was whimsical in a way that the next parts didn't capture. Too busy following the formula.

Eine Woche voller Samstage

by Paul Maar · published 1973 · read 2000-05-01

This is the first part of a very German series of books for children. The Sams (from "Samstag", "Saturday") appears the the very dull, very anxious office worker Herr Taschenbier after for a full week every day fulfills its literal name, making the book untranslatable. The Sams has blue dots all over its face, and whenever you make a wish, a dot disappears and the wish comes true.

A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle · published 1962 · read 2018-02-26

Started off as five star book, ended as a three star book. I found the religious … themes very jarring, much less low-key than in Diane Duane's books. The descriptions and characters were great, the story and pacing a bit lacking.

King Matt the First

by Janusz Korczak · published 1923 · read 2002-07-01

Maciuś (as he is called in the original and in the German translation) becomes the king at a very young age. Despite his advisors, he enacts a set of bold reforms, trying to improve people's lives. It all goes wrong after a while, because ruling is complex, as it turns out, and also people are not exactly cooperative.

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers · published 1934 · read 2002-02-01

Without Julie Andrews, who is Mary Poppins? The governess of Disney Musical fame is a bit less charming and much stricter in the books. I encountered her first here, and did enjoy the books, a bit. But they are terribly repetetive (not object level repetetive, but the story is always the same), so I dropped them soon.

Der 35. Mai oder Konrad reitet in die Südsee

by Erich Kästner · published 1931 · read 2003-08-01

Konrad goes into a magic wardrobe and comes out in a very weird world. Everything in this book is designed to be fun to children and optionally offend adults at the time. For example the rich suburban villa district where deceased generals play with tin soldiers. The roller-skating circus horse made redundant by automation. A school where difficult parents get educated and punished. A futuristic city where a completely automated slaughterhouse suddenly starts working in reverse and begins sucking in finished handbags and spitting out calves.

Dragon Rider

by Cornelia Funke · published 1997 · read 2007-04-01

I have very little memory of this book, apart from it being somewhat generic fantasy.

Die Wilden Hühner

by Cornelia Funke · published 1993 · read 2004-11-01

Generic-but-good girl series, where the girls do lots of adventurous things and are way cooler than the boys, and very matter-of-fact. I liked it a bit as a kid, though I mostly read it for lack of other things to read. I can still name some of the characters and their general vibe (ok, mostly Sprotte), which is a mark in favour of the book.

Die Wilden Hühner und das Glück der Erde

by Cornelia Funke · published 2000 · read 2008-03-01

Inevitably, there is a horse book. Because girls. And horses. That seems to be the reasoning, at least as far as I remember it.

Die Wilden Hühner: Fuchsalarm

by Cornelia Funke · published 1998 · read 2004-10-01

More adventuring, more summer gang stuff. I enjoyed it at the time and will never read it again.

Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost

by Cornelia Funke · published 1993 · read 2001-02-01

I have a vaguely positive memory of this book, but that's about it. The protagonist was nice, had an annoying older sister, and dealt with ghosts with cleverness and hacked up techy devices? It's the Cornelia Funke boy series to her more famous girl series.

Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13

by Michael Ende · published 1962 · read 1999-11-01

The second part of the Jim Button series is still super imaginary, and this time concerns rebuilding (well, expanding, really). It's fun, but lacks the deep strength of the first part. Also, finding out that Jim is a descendant of one of the Three Kings is random and when I re-read the book, I was confused and suspicious about Ende's motivation.

The Night of Wishes

by Michael Ende · published 1989 · read 2002-11-01

This is the Michael Ende book that I'm most meh about – I think I may have read it a bit late for its intended audence group? Or maybe it's just that his other books tend to be so profound that this one looks trivial next to them.

Just So Stories

by Rudyard Kipling · published 1902 · read 2010-06-01

Pretty language expressing some sweet stories and some racism and other bullshit. If you want to read these to a child, go through them first and look at what you want to edit (except if you're good enough to do that on the fly, of course).

Watership Down

by Richard Adams · published 1972 · read 2022-02-28

Rabbits. One of those children's books that does also work for adults, but only while you make allowances for it being written for kids. I feel like I want to qualify everything with that sentence. Like: I did like the strong characters and how the storytelling managed to build an overarching sense of dread despite the episodic narrative. I liked the legends and myths, and how the rabbits (who would work just as well as aliens, lets be honest) are always being grounded in their behaviour, reflexes and needs. Maybe it's just that by now, 1970s sexism reads as jarring, or that 1970s environmental pessimism reads as factual, but the book never quite drew me in – I always knew I was reading a book, and analysing it as I went. Which isn't the worst thing to happen when you read a kids cult classic way too late. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by J.K. Rowling · published 1998 · read 2003-10-01

Felt sense for books is a weird thing. The first book has a felt sense of warmth and wonder, while this one has a felt sense of damp and cold and wet and danger. I enjoyed it less than the first or the third one, but I still tore through it.

Struwwelpeter: Fearful Stories and Vile Pictures to Instruct Good Little Folks

by Heinrich Hoffmann · published 1845 · read 1998-02-01

An old book of German horror stories to frighten, erm, educate! kids. The rhymed stories are terrifying and illustrated, and I can still recall lots of the rhymes now. They include

Cart and Cwidder

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 1975 · read 2021-08-07

Neat YA book. Read this as comfort read and because you can't go wrong with Diana Wynne Jones, really. A group of teenagers thrust into political conflict, with a side of magic, by way of mythical music, handled by them as a wandering troupe. I didn't find the story particularly compelling (authoritarian countries bad, liberal countries good blah), but as always, Diana Wynne Jones absolutely delivers on characters and group dynamics.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

by Newt Scamander · published 2001 · read 2001-10-01

I loved this book as a kid, both for the fantastic beasts and for the scrawled notes by Harry, Ron and Hermione. Imagine if the Silmarillion came with scrawled notes in the margins from Gandalf and Galadriel.

Pinocchio

by Carlo Collodi · published 1883 · read 2001-04-01

Just like I knew who Darth Vader was for a decade before I watched Star Wars, I knew the story of Pinocchio by ambient cultural knowledge: The puppet that wanted to be a real boy, and couldn't lie without getting a longer nose. Two impressions come to mind when I remember reading it:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain · published 1884 · read 2003-04-01

Huckleberry Finn is a less likely protagonist than Tom Sawyer, and I liked the book much less as a consequence. Bleaker, more contrived (the plot, at least), and just more depressing. It's probably the better book from a literary perspective, what with the first person vernacular and all that, but that didn't endear it to me either (which may be a translation issue, come to think of it).

Die feuerrote Friederike

by Christine Nöstlinger · published 1970 · read 2003-01-01

The young Friederike has red hair (really, really red) and gets bullied for it. Her teacher tries to help and gives up. One of the only helpful adults is the postman, who is colour blind. Then it turns out that she has special powers due to her hair, and has to find ways to get her apathetic aunt and sarcastic cat on board.

The World of Poo

by Terry Pratchett · published 2012 · read 2020-04-23

An adorable Discworld book, really. As Ankh-Morpork adventures go, definitely better than some of the very early ones. Though very different in tone, of course – it's about Vimes jr, after all.

Neues vom Räuber Hotzenplotz

by Otfried Preußler · published 1969 · read 2000-12-01

The second part of the Hotzenplotz series is nice and fun, and not worse than the first part. But somehow the fact that there is a second part makes it more common, less exciting. I remember listening to this audio book a lot, and I like that it again emphasises being clever and tricking the opponent.

The Little Ghost

by Otfried Preußler · published 1966 · read 2001-06-01

Cheeky, fun, but nothing special: I think I only remember this book because I had the audio book and listened to it several times. I enjoy Preußler's other books more.

Der kleine Wassermann

by Otfried Preußler · published 1956 · read 2000-09-01

A nice little book for children. Nothing special per se, but I think the way life under water is portrayed is very well done. The smallest common issues are considered – where is the young waterman allowed to swim? Where's home? How does he have to dress and what are his chores? This attention to reality and detail is what I still love when reding sci-fi.

Hotzenplotz 3

by Otfried Preußler · published 1973 · read 2001-01-01

Third part of the series – I remember one good scene and not much else.

Pippi in the South Seas

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1948 · read 1999-07-01

While I generally love everything Astrid Lindgren has written, the Pippi books rank lowest among her books for me. Pippi (Pippilotta Viktualia Rollgardina Pfefferminz Efraimstochter Langstrumpf) is strong and wild, has a horse and a monkey and two good friends and does whatever she wants. That's it in terms of plots. The movies are fun and entertaining – I enjoyed trying to spot the tricks they used when I was a child – for example, Pippi can lift her horse, which is very much a real horse! But as a book, it is a bit light on plot.

Pünktchen und Anton

by Erich Kästner · published 1931 · read 2001-01-01

Goddamnit, this book might have been good. Instead it is infuriating – Kästner inserts sermons (in italics, at least, to make them easier to skip) into an already heavily moralising story, and tells children about social injustice, money and the revolution. Other than that, it's a decent story about a rich girl and a poor boy, their friendship, their worries and woes and joy.

Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe

by Cornelia Funke · published 2003 · read 2005-10-01

The summer gang at their most generic: Suddenly, the boys are more than just an annoyance. Though they keep being annoying, of course. Captured the feeling of my early adolescence well, and as such I will never read it again.

The Witches

by Roald Dahl · published 1983 · read 2006-03-01

This is a book that made me feel uncomfortable and unliked as a kid, and made me very hesitant to read any Roald Dahl ever again. Everything is gritty and dark and dangerous, and that seemed to seep into the world around me.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

by Roald Dahl · published 1964 · read 2006-08-01