Sebastian (a lady) Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Frederike in Persia mentioned that we might do a separate thread on literature suggestions. I'll admit that it is a little frustrating to try to find German books for my kids because so much is either way over their heads or in translation (often from English). So what books have you read/used/liked in German? What books do you think would be common to the literary background of most German (German speaking) adults? I'll start with two kids series that I enjoyed as a German learner. Ich habe einen Freund . . . This is a series about a bunch of different professions from trashman to train engineer to ship capitan to race car driver. One of the things that appealed to me is that the illustrations actually show German scenes rather than generic scenes. The book Ich habe einen Freund der is Busfahrer may be one of my favorites because it actually shows how to read a bus schedule (and because it uses the Berlin bus system, which was our system). Looking at Amazon, it seems that there may be a way to do MP3 downloads of these books as audiobook. (I'm not sure about restrictions for downloading outside Germany.) The other one that I found helpful was the Conni series by Liane Schneider und Eva Wenzel-Bürger. Conni has all sorts of adventures like baking cookies, celebrating Christmas , going to kindergarten, or going to the doctor. I think the stories are fun, introduce good idioms and introduce cultural situations like Schultuete and kids getting totally undressed at doctor's visits (which tended to be stumbling blocks amongst the American expat community I was in in Germany). [There is also a Conni series that follows Conni into higher grades in school. I think that Conni was starting Gymnasium as we were moving out of Germany a couple years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_l_e_0..Q_c Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Detectives in Togas is actually translated *from* German http://www.amazon.de/Caius-ist-Dummkopf-Henry-Winterfeld/dp/3570205207/ref=sr_1_7/280-5910842-5815532?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238764556&sr=8-7 It's not high literature, but it's a fun read, and related to history! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friederike in Persia Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 The other one that I found helpful was the Conni series by Liane Schneider und Eva Wenzel-Bürger. . :iagree: My girls liked the Conni books, they are easy to read chapter books, comparable in difficulty with the magic tree house series. Books by Michael Ende are quite "classic", too. Jim Knopf for younger ones, Die Unendliche Geschichte for 10 and older ones. We've just started on Erich Kaestner: Das doppelte Lottchen (this is the book that "The parent trap" is based on, though there's NOTHING American about it. Once the dds got over that, they loved it!), Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer, Emil und die Dedektive,... Cornelia Funke reads a bit like Harry Potter, so if you're happy with him you can go and look her up. Der Herr der Diebe is her most famous one. Got it on the shelf but haven't read that one yet. Her books for younger ones all seem to have lots of magic in them too. The TKKG books by Stefan Wolf are very popular. Every year I hand one to my oldest and she still doesn't like them, but I'm sure one day she will. I loved the detective stories when I was little and most German kids still do. Then there's Schlunz, by Harry Voss. A brand new series, cc, but not overtly. Both my dds think he's hallerious and they are some of the few German books I don't have to push them to read. For younger ones there's the Ravensburger Wieso? Weshalb? Warum? series, a flap book fact series, very accessable. Finally, also for younger ones, the Frieder books by Gudrun Mebs. We just got them given, and they are very endearing. They read a bit old fashioned (like the Oma he lives with doesn't have a telephone) and have a Bavarian twang to it, but we all adored them. Got to run, but am very much looking forward to this thread! :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naturalmom Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Here's some that we like (in general order of age) Mini Lesemaus series (Auf dem Bauernhof, Im Schwimmbad, Tiere im Garten...) These are nice little books. One side of the page has vocabulary with pictures, the other side is a little story (just about 3-4 sentences per page). There are LOTS of topics. Meyers Kleine Kinderbibliothek: kind of expensive, but we've gotten some used titles. Good for building general knowledge. Lots of animal topics. Janosch: especially Oh wie schoen ist Panama, Post fuer den Tiger, and Komm, wir finden einen Schatz. My absolute favorite is Panama. Christine Noestlinger: Geschichten vom Franz - and the whole rest of the series. We have about 2/3 of this series, and just love it. In fact, I have "Allerhand vom Franz" if anyone would like to buy it. It's got a couple of stories from various books in the series. I got it before we left Germany since we were on a budget and I couldn't afford them all. But I recently splurged and bought all the books that the stories are taken from!!! So if anyone wants a good sampler of stories about Franz, I have one:) My oldest still enjoys these (and he's 15!) Paul Maar: Anne will ein Zwilling werden is one title we like a lot; for older kids Lippels Traum is a less famous, but still wonderful story. (The Sams stories are by Paul Maar, but we haven't read these) And of course Heidi by Johanna Spyri is a classic, but older style writing. I'd love to add more, but must run for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 http://www.alphabet-garten.com/ This place carries lots of German books at decent prices for those of us in the US, or you could at least get ideas if you live somewhere else. Plus she has a blog where she reviews a lot of the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 Detectives in Togas is actually translated *from* German http://www.amazon.de/Caius-ist-Dummkopf-Henry-Winterfeld/dp/3570205207/ref=sr_1_7/280-5910842-5815532?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238764556&sr=8-7 It's not high literature, but it's a fun read, and related to history! There is also a third story in German that so far as I can tell was never translated into English. My kids have enjoyed Detectives in Togas and The Roman Ransom Mystery in English and I'm planning on having them read the third one when we do ancients again. I'm hoping that it reenforces the idea that there is a real payoff for keeping up with their languages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 :iagree: My girls liked the Conni books, they are easy to read chapter books, comparable in difficulty with the magic tree house series. I think the chapter book series is Meine Freundin Conni by Julia Boehme. It looks like Amazon.de also refers to these as Conni-Erzaehlbaender. And I think the series that was starting as we left Germany was Conni & Co (which also seems to have an edgier illustration style). The books that I have focus more on Conni as a little girl (kindergarten through maybe second grade). They are LeseMaus books in the square stapled (broschiert) format - about the size of a Little Golden Book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friederike in Persia Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 I think the chapter book series is Meine Freundin Conni by Julia Boehme. It looks like Amazon.de also refers to these as Conni-Erzaehlbaender. And I think the series that was starting as we left Germany was Conni & Co (which also seems to have an edgier illustration style). The books that I have focus more on Conni as a little girl (kindergarten through maybe second grade). They are LeseMaus books in the square stapled (broschiert) format - about the size of a Little Golden Book. Sebastian is totally right! Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse anybody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friederike in Persia Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 we've been playing "Deutschlandreise" from Ravensburger a few times lately and it's a brilliant way to teach German geography. You have to travel through 8 cities/towns and then make it to a meeting point, but there are action cards, so you might get invited to Hamburg, when you were just about to make it to Muenchen. I think they do an Europareise, too. The other non-book recommendation is the Nesthaeckchen DVDs. The DVDs are lovely and my dd10 keeps watching them again and again. It's about a girl called Annemarie, who grows up in Berlin in the pre-WW1 years. They only ever did 12 episodes of it (there are 6 DVDs), so we got the books by Else Ury to see how Annemarie's life goes on, but they are written in such a flowery and outdated way, that dd won't get them for years to come. I myself found it hard going, so you'd be much better off with the DVDs, rather than the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 We had a great time watching Abenteuer 1900. I actually liked it better than some of the American shows of a similar ilk because they picked people who had similar jobs in the present. So the housekeeper/cook was a big deal Berlin chef. The stableman had experience with horses and carriages. The main family were doctors cast in the role of a rural doctor's family in 1900. I'll admit I'm a sucker of any type of show like this, but I found these especially good. There are also some good shows (probably from RTL) about Germans emigrating to the Americas (this one was multipart) and another one was Windstaerke 8 about the actual voyage from Europe to America (I only saw short bits of this). For What It's Worth, you might also find something of use at the website for the Deutsches Auswandererhaus. We toured this a couple years ago when it had just opened. It was pretty interesting to see this from the point of view of emmigration rather than immigration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanessaS Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 (edited) We like: Funke, Ende, and Kaestner are always good. Die Schildbuerger Kleiner Eisbaer (not originally in German but better in German than in English, IMO). We're big fans of Toni Lauerer, as well. It's hysterically funny but not really "high literature". And very Bavarian. My DH says the best is "Die Drei Fragezeichen" and "Asterix and Obelix". What about Karl May? Edited April 11, 2009 by VanessaS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momof165 Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 My son absolutely loves ALL the FELIX books by Annette Langen & Constance Droop. They are published by Copenrath Verlag. These were the first books my son really, really wanted to read in German. They are great to learn Geography as well. Absolutely darling. I think we have all but 2 of them.:D Sonja _______________________________ Homeschooling JUST ONE - ds 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanessaS Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 What about "Ich und meine Schwester Klara"? We have "Ich und Klara und die Tiere". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 My son absolutely loves ALL the FELIX books by Annette Langen & Constance Droop. They are published by Copenrath Verlag. These were the first books my son really, really wanted to read in German. They are great to learn Geography as well. Absolutely darling. I think we have all but 2 of them.:D We love those here too. We have most of the books, and also DVDs of the TV show and a couple of movies that were made. My kids like the TV shows better than the movies, for some reason. By the same author for slightly younger kids (K and below?), we also liked Lilli von der Feuerwehr and Lilli und die Zahnbürste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friederike in Persia Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 What about Karl May? I had a class mate, who read all of them, if I remember correctly there were over 60. Have you read them yourself? I remember them being dry and giving up after a few chapters, but that might have just been me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friederike in Persia Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 We're big fans of Toni Lauerer, as well. It's hysterically funny but not really "high literature". And very Bavarian. What's very Bavarian? Will non Bavarian's understand it? Is it written in dialect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanessaS Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 It's written in dialect and is very Bavarian-centered topic-wise. Check out the link to one of his stories in the previous post. Never read Karl May but my DH has and enjoyed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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