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 kind of random and when I re-read the book, I was confused and suspicious about Ende's motivation.

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.

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.

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.

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.