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Struwwelpter (And Other Disturbing Yet Cautionary Tales By Heinrich Hoffmann) by Bob Staake BLAB! Fantagraphics Books 2006 ISBN 10: 1560977027 ISBN 13: 978-156977025   Return To All Books     Behind The Pages With Bob: "When Fantagraphics asked me if there was a book that I sould never do for Simon and Schuster or Random House what would it be, I didn;t hesitate answering the question: Der Struwwelpeter. Growing up in a German household in the 1960s I remember when my maternal grandfather gave me the book on my 6th birthday. I opened it up, saw thumbs being cut off, children ablaze in fire and pets being beaten and I thought grandpa must have been pulling an April Fools joke on me. Since it was September, I realized that wasn't and was instead dead serious. I never forgot the book, couldn't remember its title, but then managed to rediscover it -- and I was surprised to learn that so many other generations of kids were familiar with the 10 'caustionary poems.' My editor, Monte Beauchamp, basically let me just go crazy and once I completed the book I don;t think I had to make a single change or fix to anything. I only wish all publishing experiences were as fun and straightforward." -- Bob Staake   There is a significant typographic error on the cover that neither Staake nor three other editors caught before publication. The word "disturbing" is spelled as "distrubing." This would have been edited in a second edition, but one was never printed. Staake created no preliminary pencil sketches for Struwwelpeter. Instead he went straight to final color art. With so many German to English translations of Hoffman's 1844 "Der Struwwelpeter" to work from, Staake chose to base his on Mark Twain's version. "Of all the translations I read Twains was the most accessible and straightforward. I had to play with many of the stanzas, use artistic license and add new lines, but I think in the end the text is a faithful representation of Hoffmann's original poems." Summary: A visually stunning reinterpretation of the fairy tale classic! Mesmerized as a child by the nightmarish prose and haunting images contained in the book, noted author/illustrator Bob Staake gives a 21st century spin to these 14 stories - each more politically incorrect than the next.  Sample image from book (above)   Listen to the National Public Radio interview with Staake about his reinterpretation of "Struwwelpeter":   American Library Association: The original "Struwwelpeter," or slovenly Peter, was the creation of physician and mental hospital director Hoffmann (1809-94) for his young son's amusement and instruction. Peter and the other characters of Hoffmann's rhymes were children who misbehaved in various ways only to meet with ostracism (Peter's fate), humiliation, mutilation, or death. Better than the rhymes were Hoffmann's intricate illustrations, which influenced many later children's book and comics artists. Staake renders tribute to Hoffmann by reillustrating 10 poems. In his highly geometrical style, figures and objects are constructed of brightly colored circles, triangles, rectangles, ellipses, and so forth, and placed on backdrops alive with flat, colored shapes. Although he essays perspective only on the last page of "Slovenly Peter," Staake displays compositional flair and imagination nearly everywhere; see, in particular, the second page of "Hans Stare-in-the-Air." The rhymes are probably still too much for very little children; Staake's pictures, on the other hand, are less scary and more child-friendly than Hoffmann's. Amazon.com Customer Reviews: Why NOT For Children? Folks, I've seen the reviews here and recently in the NY Times saying this book is not for kids. All I can say is that my 4-year-old loves it and makes me read it to her again and again. Maybe some kids will be freaked out, but I urge parents to consider whether their kid might be made of hardier stuff. I think we often underestimate our children -- there is a reason these stories have endured. A little girl gets burned to a cinder playing with matches? What parent would not want their kids to learn this lesson, when it happens in real life all the time! As for the thumb-sucker, perhaps it's just coincidence that my daughter managed to kick this stubborn habit soon after we bought this book! The pictures are fantastic and the stories teach real lessons. Yes, parents should read it and discuss it with their children. But they should not avoid it. I recommend this book as highly as possible. A Terrific Book That Parents Should Preview and Other Adults Can Instantly Enjoy I am an admirer of Bob Staake's stylized artwork, and this is what drew me to STRUWWELPETER initially. These simultaneously harsh and funny stories originate from 19th century Germany, and are fondly remembered in the U.S. by many German immigrants. This book's cover provides a good hint as to its contents: It should be pointed out that I have a soft spot for gallow's humor that other adults may not share. As a middle-school teacher and children's book author, I think that having an adult read this book to younger kids in order to process through them would be the most sensible approach. Older kids and adults can just read the stories to themselves! In fact, this book may be considered by some to be a "children's story for adults." Do you really want a six-year-old to read the story about Pauline playing with matches, or Peter getting his thumbs cut off by the tailor (for sucking on them)? Depends on the six-year-old, I suppose. :) Bravo to Bob Staake for keeping these stories alive, and for his extraordinary illustrations.   My 4.5 yo picked this book up off the shelf at the library because she liked the cover picture. We took it home and read it at bedtime over several nights. She absolutely loved it. At that age, she understood the humor the author was portraying of certain things parents want their kids to learn. At age 6, my daughter insisted that she wanted her own copy for Christmas. I found one of the older version and purchased it because I could not find the one with the newer illustrations. She was still ecstatic about it. She reads the stories to her dolls during tea time all the time. I just found the newer illustrations and will be purchasing it for her as a surprise.

Follow Bob: Struwwelpeter Hardcover $45.00 USD Includes free shipping to continental U.S. ONLY. For international orders, please inquire.   Required: Please indicate in text field below to whom book should be signed - or simply state "sign only": For limited time only with each purchase: Free box of "Struwwelpeter Cafe" matches designed by Bob Staake.   To purchase an unsigned retail copy of this book at a lesser price, please click any of the BUY links to the left.