Another Christmas Tale

[selenak]

Erich Kästner, author of witty and wise poems and some of the most beloved books for children in German literature, about whom I’ve written before, also wrote one of the saddest Christmas stories I know, but not in any of his works of fiction. It’s from his book about his childhood, Als ich ein kleiner Junge war („When I was a little boy“), and I

Comments

[tebasile7]

I had "Als ich ein kleiner Junge war" as an audio casette when growing up.
In retrospect I wonder if my mother ( I don`t remember when she gave it to me but much later than "Das doppelte Lottchen" ) actually read or listended to it beforehand.
But I remember that the only thing I really found dreadful was the ending...the beginning of World War I and I used to stop listening and rewind the tape before it came to that for years.
The rest was just how life was for children to me.... it was different from my family life but (sadly) not really worse.

To me Kästner always felt like one of the few authors of children's literature that took his audience seriously without any dumbing down and sugar coating and these anecdotes (I had forgotten most about them before reading you post) show why that i the case.
He does not underestimate his audience because he knows what children are capable of understanding and managing.