Books in German?

[....]

I'm not sure if I should've put this on the General Ed board, but oh well.  I'm looking for some easy to read books in German for my teens.  They've been learning German for years (I'm half German and I have a minor in Germanic studies, so I can help them a lot - answer their questions, etc - you get the idea) and I don't know what level they're at...but they're able to read things like fairy tales, etc.  I have the Duerrenmatt play Der Besuch der Alten Dame (not sure if anyone is familiar with that play, but just as an example) and flipping through it, I'm pretty sure they could read it.  I'm looking at stuff around that level for them to read.  So, like not Shakespeare...but not beginner's "I'm traveling to Germany" stuff.

And we have German readers, etc.  I just don't like them at all.  They're all travel oriented and they're really boring for kids (and me too).  I can only stomach so many stories about how to go down an escalator and get on the right train.  Ugh.

They've actually learned a TON from reading fairy tales, but we've read so many now...I feel like we could basically call this German Fairy Tales on their transcripts. Lol

I really appreciate any help or ideas.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Evanthe

[Matryoshka]

The Dürrenmatt plays are very often used in upper level German classes, before you get to full-on stuff like Goethe and Heine.  So those are a good place.  And I'll also agree with fairy tales - depending on the version, they can have some complex vocabulary but kids can get a lot from context if they're already familiar with the stories in English.  And a lot of the vocab repeats between stories - king/queen, prince/princess, well (watery kind), mill, fairy, knight, etc. 

Do you think they'd be ready to tackle some Cornelia Funke or Michael Ende?  YA writers. 

[....]

9 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

The Dürrenmatt plays are very often used in upper level German classes, before you get to full-on stuff like Goethe and Heine.  So those are a good place.  And I'll also agree with fairy tales - depending on the version, they can have some complex vocabulary but kids can get a lot from context if they're already familiar with the stories in English.  And a lot of the vocab repeats between stories - king/queen, prince/princess, well (watery kind), mill, fairy, knight, etc. 

Do you think they'd be ready to tackle some Cornelia Funke or Michael Ende?  YA writers. 

 

Are there other Duerrenmatt plays a teenager might like?  They are pretty simple....

I've never heard of Cornelia Funke or Michael Ende.  I'll take a look at those, too.

 

[Matryoshka]

3 minutes ago, Evanthe said:

 

Are there other Duerrenmatt plays a teenager might like?  They are pretty simple....

I've never heard of Cornelia Funke or Michael Ende.  I'll take a look at those, too.

 

I think way back we also read Der Verdacht by Dürrenmatt...

Michael Ende and Cornelia Funke are both great authors who write both kids' books and YA, and have been translated widely into English.  The former wrote The Neverending Story (Die unendliche Geschichte), and you may know Funke's Inkworld books (Inkheart/Tintenherz is the first).

[8filltheheart]

Would you be at all interested in audiobooks? There are quite a few German ones, currently free.

https://stories.audible.com/

[....]

1 hour ago, Matryoshka said:

I think way back we also read Der Verdacht by Dürrenmatt...

Michael Ende and Cornelia Funke are both great authors who write both kids' books and YA, and have been translated widely into English.  The former wrote The Neverending Story (Die unendliche Geschichte), and you may know Funke's Inkworld books (Inkheart/Tintenherz is the first).

 

Oh, yeah!  I do know those!!

I'll look up Der Verdacht, also.  

Thank-you!

[....]

39 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

Would you be at all interested in audiobooks? There are quite a few German ones, currently free.

https://stories.audible.com/

 

Wow...that's a really good idea, too!  

[Lucy the Valiant]

DD received Harry Potter in German as a Christmas gift. She also (rather a beginner in German) enjoys Calvin & Hobbs. That's all I've got, haha!

[regentrude]

 Tintenherz trilogy by Cornelia Funke. It's fantasy.

Also anything by Tonke Dragt, that's adventure stories.

 

[Quarter Note]

6 hours ago, Evanthe said:

I'm not sure if I should've put this on the General Ed board, but oh well.  I'm looking for some easy to read books in German for my teens.  They've been learning German for years (I'm half German and I have a minor in Germanic studies, so I can help them a lot - answer their questions, etc - you get the idea) and I don't know what level they're at...but they're able to read things like fairy tales, etc.  I have the Duerrenmatt play Der Besuch der Alten Dame (not sure if anyone is familiar with that play, but just as an example) and flipping through it, I'm pretty sure they could read it.  I'm looking at stuff around that level for them to read.  So, like not Shakespeare...but not beginner's "I'm traveling to Germany" stuff.

And we have German readers, etc.  I just don't like them at all.  They're all travel oriented and they're really boring for kids (and me too).  I can only stomach so many stories about how to go down an escalator and get on the right train.  Ugh.

They've actually learned a TON from reading fairy tales, but we've read so many now...I feel like we could basically call this German Fairy Tales on their transcripts. Lol

I really appreciate any help or ideas.

Evanthe, do you have a particular German fairy tales collection to recommend?  I'm an adult learner and am always looking for easy German books.  Thanks!

[....]

15 hours ago, regentrude said:

 Tintenherz trilogy by Cornelia Funke. It's fantasy.

Also anything by Tonke Dragt, that's adventure stories.

 

 

Another Cornelia Funke!

[....]

11 hours ago, txk said:

2 of my kids did German.  One of the things they read (and still read) is the Bible in German.   

 

I actually looked and looked for Bible stories in German, because I thought that would be a great way to read something, but they already know the stories....so it would be easier for them to comprehend what's happening in the story, even if they didn't know all the words they were reading.  But, I can't find any.  I keep looking on Amazon and that just might be the wrong place to look for books in German.  I don't know.

[....]

13 hours ago, Quarter Note said:

Evanthe, do you have a particular German fairy tales collection to recommend?  I'm an adult learner and am always looking for easy German books.  Thanks!

 

Hi!  Yeah, there were a bunch of websites that had fairy tales in easy German and I even saw some websites that had short stories in easy German.  I'll try to find some and share the links....

This website is hard to find (I have to constantly search for it), but these are great!  They're printable and I think some of them have a listening button.  I was just printing them out and we would sit around the table and take turns reading to each other and then translating.  We've read most of them:  https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/service/leichte_sprache/Maerchen-in-Leichter-Sprache,maerchenleichtesprache100.html

This has a bunch of links:  https://learnoutlive.com/easy-german-short-stories/

This looked interesting, but I haven't tried them yet:  https://www.germanlw.com/german-fairy-tales/

This seems to have fables, short stories, etc:  https://www.sos-halberstadt.bildung-lsa.de

https://www.e-stories.de

If you find anything that you like, let me know, too!

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, Evanthe said:

Another Cornelia Funke!

Naw, that's the same one I mentioned 😁(and my favorite of hers that I've read)!  But she is quite prolific. Only a fraction of her books have been translated into English. 

[....]

4 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

Naw, that's the same one I mentioned 😁(and my favorite of hers that I've read)!  But she is quite prolific. Only a fraction of her books have been translated into English. 

 

Oh, I know.  I was being silly...as usual.  🤪

[....]

3 hours ago, txk said:

Not stories, but the actual Bible.  I don't think it's a terribly high reading level?  Here's the one youngest dd used.  Says she thinks she got it online somewhere.

 

I'm going to really have to look at samples.  I'm doubting my kids' abilities on that one.  Are German Bibles written in different forms of language like English Bibles, I wonder??  You know how we have like the King James Version...the NIV...the NKJV....etc.  

[Matryoshka]

Just now, Evanthe said:

I'm going to really have to look at samples.  I'm doubting my kids' abilities on that one.  Are German Bibles written in different forms of language like English Bibles, I wonder??  You know how we have like the King James Version...the NIV...the NKJV....etc.  

Yeah, of course.  That one says it's the "Good News" Bible - that's not the version Luther translated for sure! 😂  That's got to be a much more modern translation.

[....]

I wouldn't even know how to research this question, but now I'm intrigued!  I guess I'm off to do some googling.

[Matryoshka]

1 minute ago, Evanthe said:

I wouldn't even know how to research this question, but now I'm intrigued!  I guess I'm off to do some googling.

Well, Luther translated the first German bible back in the ... 1500s?  I've read some German from that time - and most of it is religious - and it's very hard to parse.  Germany at the time was not a single country, and German wasn't yet really standardized in to one German language.  And lots of spelling changes since then.

There are definitely more modern translations.  How many and how they differ I have no idea, but something from at least the 20th century would be my preference.

[pmeilaen]

You could try "Der Schimmelreiter" (Theodor Storm), "Damals war es Friedrich" (Hans-Peter Richter), "Ich bin David" (Anne Holm), books by Hans Baumann, "Großer Tiger und Christian" (Fritz Mühlenweg), "Eine kurze Weltgeschichte" (Ernst Gombrich) -- there is also an audio book for this --, "Literaturlesebuch" by Manfred Mai (Manfred Mai also wrote history books for young people), "Die rote Zora" (Kurt Held), "Die Großen der Welt" (Georg Popp), books by Auguste Lechner, "Milon und der Löwe" by Jakob Streit, "Drei Tage und kein Ende" by Cili Wethekam, "Timm Thaler" by James Krüss, and books by Erich Kästner.

Edited April 17, 2020 by pmeilaen

[pmeilaen]

4 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Well, Luther translated the first German bible back in the ... 1500s?  I've read some German from that time - and most of it is religious - and it's very hard to parse.  Germany at the time was not a single country, and German wasn't yet really standardized in to one German language.  And lots of spelling changes since then.

There are definitely more modern translations.  How many and how they differ I have no idea, but something from at least the 20th century would be my preference.

Here is a bit about German Bibles.  There are differences between protestant and Catholic Bibles.  

[Matryoshka]

1 minute ago, pmeilaen said:

 books by Erich Kästner.

Ooo, Erich Kästner books are great - Emil und die Detktive is probably one of the best known.  And Das doppelte Löttchen is the source material for The Parent Trap movies - who knew???

[pmeilaen]

2 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Ooo, Erich Kästner books are great - Emil und die Detktive is probably one of the best known.  And Das doppelte Löttchen is the source material for The Parent Trap movies - who knew???

Yes, those two are wonderful.  There is also "Das fliegende Klassenzimmer."  

[....]

OK, now this is seriously interesting, because one website is saying that the German language became more standardized because of the Luther Bible translation....  (I have way too much free time on my hands - lol)

[....]

24 minutes ago, pmeilaen said:

You could try "Der Schimmelreiter" (Theodor Storm), "Damals war es Friedrich" (Hans-Peter Richter), "Ich bin David" (Anne Holm), books by Hans Baumann, "Großer Tiger und Christian" (Fritz Mühlenweg), "Eine kurze Weltgeschichte" (Ernst Gombrich) -- there is also an audio book for this --, "Literaturlesebuch" by Manfred Mai (Manfred Mai also wrote history books for young people), "Die rote Zora" (Kurt Held), "Die Großen der Welt" (Georg Popp), books by Auguste Lechner, "Milon und der Löwe" by Jakob Streit, "Drei Tage und kein Ende" by Cili Wethekam, "Timm Thaler" by James Krüss, and books by Erich Kästner.

 

Thank-you for typing all that out!

Can any of you guys recommend good places to buy books in German?  Online, unfortunately/of course.  Anytime I search for a German book on Amazon, it's very expensive and it's from 3rd party sellers.  I realize that may be the best I can do from Texas.  

[Matryoshka]

1 minute ago, Evanthe said:

Thank-you for typing all that out!

Can any of you guys recommend good places to buy books in German?  Online, unfortunately/of course.  Anytime I search for a German book on Amazon, it's very expensive and it's from 3rd party sellers.  I realize that may be the best I can do from Texas.  

I find that used in good+ condition from 3rd party sellers on Amazon gets me the best prices - much cheaper than new from Amazon Germany where the price is not so bad but shipping adds quite a bit or foreign language bookstores in the US, which are usually even more expensive.  Momox is a relatively new place that sells German books through Amazon US, but I think ships from Germany - but I've had very good luck with them - the used books I've gotten from them have all been in good shape.  Book Depository also sometimes sells German books as well.  I've also bought from other 3rd-party sellers, but those both are solid for sure.  A few years ago I couldn't find German books, used or new, on Amazon US and I did order some from Amazon.de, but now I can find most things I'm looking for on the US website for less (used, 3rd party).

[Quarter Note]

11 hours ago, Evanthe said:

 

Hi!  Yeah, there were a bunch of websites that had fairy tales in easy German and I even saw some websites that had short stories in easy German.  I'll try to find some and share the links....

....

Thank you so much, Evanthe!  I'll be looking into all your links.

[Quarter Note]

5 hours ago, Evanthe said:

 

I'm going to really have to look at samples.  I'm doubting my kids' abilities on that one.  Are German Bibles written in different forms of language like English Bibles, I wonder??  You know how we have like the King James Version...the NIV...the NKJV....etc.  

 

My husband has Hoffnung für alle: Das Neue Testament.  He says that that is a modern translation, roughly the equivalent of the English Living Bible.  

[pmeilaen]

On 4/17/2020 at 6:11 PM, Evanthe said:

 

Thank-you for typing all that out!

Can any of you guys recommend good places to buy books in German?  Online, unfortunately/of course.  Anytime I search for a German book on Amazon, it's very expensive and it's from 3rd party sellers.  I realize that may be the best I can do from Texas.  

I get a lot via Bookdepository and IBIS.   

[Junie]

I don't speak German, but I am learning Spanish.  I had 4 years of Spanish in high school, and I decided that I really wanted to wake it back up from the dormant part of my brain.

One of the ways I've been doing this is by reading in Spanish.  I just finished The Hobbit, which was a bit on the difficult side.  I'm wondering if it might be a good fit for your kids.

I've also read Charlotte's Web in Spanish and I'm planning to read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Also, I think the recommendation for reading the Bible is a good one.  I am reading through the New Testament in Spanish this year. 

For me, I have found that reading a book that I've read multiple times in English is a really good place to start.

[....]

6 hours ago, Junie said:

I don't speak German, but I am learning Spanish.  I had 4 years of Spanish in high school, and I decided that I really wanted to wake it back up from the dormant part of my brain.

One of the ways I've been doing this is by reading in Spanish.  I just finished The Hobbit, which was a bit on the difficult side.  I'm wondering if it might be a good fit for your kids.

I've also read Charlotte's Web in Spanish and I'm planning to read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Also, I think the recommendation for reading the Bible is a good one.  I am reading through the New Testament in Spanish this year. 

For me, I have found that reading a book that I've read multiple times in English is a really good place to start.

 

Wow, if you can read The Hobbit in another language, you're doing GREAT!!  I read somewhere that even if we don't use a language for years, we form neural connections in our brains that can be easily revived (or reformed) if we get back into it.  

[Junie]

2 hours ago, Evanthe said:

 

Wow, if you can read The Hobbit in another language, you're doing GREAT!!  I read somewhere that even if we don't use a language for years, we form neural connections in our brains that can be easily revived (or reformed) if we get back into it.  

Thank you!  The Hobbit was a bit too difficult for me, though.  I understood the main gist of what was going on in each chapter, but I didn't understand it well.  I want to try it again next year.

I've been actively working on Spanish for about 6 months or so in a variety of ways -- Duolingo, reading, attending a Spanish church service once a week, and watching movies in Spanish.

 

[Bronze]

Just for fun, how about Asterix in German translation? Those are fun in any language.

One of my favorite ways to improve in any language is to read books I'm already familiar with in English in the language I'm studying. In German, I've done books by Susan Cooper as well as C.S. Lewis and Tolkien (I do struggle with Tolkien...my German is not good. But I love Tolkien and almost have his books memorized in English so that helps).