THE 6 BEST PICTURE BOOKS IN GERMAN THAT DELIGHT KIDS AND PARENTS ALIKE

What is the criteria for a best book? It will always be somewhat arbitrary. But in my view a truly outstanding picture book is one that is loved by children AND parents alike, one where they bond over while reading it together. There are many educational books with a message that parents love and kids are slightly bored with, and other books kids find funny, but parents find a bit annoying... Here are 6 best picture books in German my children could not get enough of, and I truly enjoyed as well. And books that our costumers say they had to reread again and again. And again.

What are your favorite German picture books?

Heinz Janisch / Michael Roher

SCHNEELOEWE

Have you ever wondered, what animal you are deep down? Or others around you? A boy, the narrator of this story, has a secret to tell. He is a white snow lion. It is his true self. He is good at observing, fights for justice and moves like a cat. He knows that other kids - and teachers - deep down hide their true self in an animal being. There is a tiger, two zebras, giraffes. Nobody talks about their secret, but accepts others as they are.

Stunningly poetic , blue - and white ballpoint illustrations match the book. I initially thought the book might be too quiet to be a kids' favorite. How wrong I was, My younger son wanted to reread it several times in a row the first time, bring it to school and keeps asking for it.

It is nominated for this years Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, and rightly so!

4 years and up

Robert Munch / SaBine Buechner

DIE PRINZESSIN IN DER TUETE

The tale of a princess, that defies stereotypes of princes, princesses and possibly dragons. Lissy lives in castle with her future husband Prince Roland. But then a dragon kidnaps Roland - and leaves Lissy with nothing but a paper bag for clothing. Determined to free the prince, she follows the steps of the dragon, outsmarts him and frees the prince. Unimpressed by her courage and put off by her rugged look, the prince does not thank her but asks for her to dress better.

This book is a classic, it was first published in Canada 40 years ago. In German it was recently newly illustrated. It is lots of fun to read and also offers some talking material.

Great for all kids asking for princesses or dragons - while defying gender-stereotypes.

Marc-Uwe Kling / Astrid Henn

Das NEINHORN

It is land of fairytales, of milk and honey, or anyway, the unicorn land. Everybody speaks in rhyme and things are happy go lucky. But there is one little unicorn who is not happy. He says no to everything. And so the family calls him Neinhorn, or Nocorn. He refuses to speak in rhyme and decides to leave the candy land. He meets a dog who always says "so what", a racoon who asks "what?" no matter what and a princess who keeps muttering "but". They team up and keep grouching together.

Kids will shriek with laughter and parents enjoy the humor and word plays. It is not really a very educational book - or maybe it wants teach the parents something rather than the kids? Thumps of either way.

4 years and up

Strid DIE UNGLGLAUBLICHE GESCHICHTE VON DER RIESENBIRNE German picture book

Jakob Martin Strid

DIE UNGLAUBLICHE GESCHICHTE VON DER RIESENBIRNE

Fishing one day cat Mika and elephant Sebastian find a message in a bottle with a seed. The message is a little blurry, but they plant a seed and soon a gigantic pear grows and disrupts everything. Unfortunately the pear can't be moved. Professor Glykose comes to see what he can do, but then there is some mishap and the three of them land in the ocean, sailing off to some incredible adventures with pitting darkness, monsters and a mysterious island...

A (not too) suspenseful story with lots of twists and ideas and illustrations with incredible details to discover this book is probably the book that has delighted our costumers the most.

Lisen Adbage

DIE BESTIMMER

Do you know people who always get to decide? Ideally we all are friends and everything is great. But in real life there often are some who set the rules, not in a friendly way, and others who somehow let them rule. In this case a bunch of kids have fun playing together, Until the others come and tell them what to do. And send them away. Again and again. No matter what they do. For soccer though they order them to stay, as four is not enough to play a match. And our five friends finally say no.

A great book in simple language about power and learning to set boundaries. We reread and talked about this book many times. The bold, colorful illustrations with diverse characters fit perfectly.

4 years and up

Alexander Steffensmeier

LIESELOTTE LAUERT

Lieselotte is a slightly unusual cow that loves to chase the mail man from the farm. Every day she hides somewhere else to scare him. The poor guy sleeps badly because he has nightmares of Lieselotte. Meanwhile the farmer is furious because she has not received an undamaged package in ages. So she comes up with a plan: maybe Lieselotte would stop if she received a package herself?

This is the first picture book in a series, all big hits with kids. The stories are all slightly crazy, and the illustrations of the farm offer lots of little side plots to discover on each page (a big favorite are the chicken and their chicklets.)

3 years and up