Rating: 
Summary: Should be a little more of Struwwelpeter...
Review: ..and less worry about self esteem. Fidgety Philip and Cruel Frederick will open a few tiny eyes to what happens to naughty little folks! I give this to every kid I know!
Rating: 
Summary: Twisted Moral Tales fur Kinder
Review: Ever wonder what early German television programs for children must have been like? A bit of the Grimm brothers, with a dash of Weimar dada and an big dose of the unintentionally sick humor of the classic Struwwelpeter by today's standards. This is a classic on some level, not sure where or what. It is not that unusual a children's book when compared to other mid-Victorian attempts at the moral edification of youth. Perhaps a fear of the wages of infantile sins consisting of thumb sucking, poor grooming, cruelty, matches and finicky eaters would help with some of the childish monsters many parents raise today. I have a dream to place copies of Struwwelpeter in every waiting room in America for the kiddies enjoyment. Maybe the injections & dental drills will not seem so bad after all. Herr Hoffman, we thank you for disturbing innocent lullaby land with the dark creatures dwelling in the deep shadowy Tuetonic forests from whence you sprang, an unsung hero to real family values. I guarantee you cannot pick up this book without giggling. Enjoy & sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite...
Rating:
Summary: Twisted Moral Tales fur Kinder
Review: Ever wonder what early German television programs for children must have been like? A bit of the Grimm brothers, with a dash of Weimar dada and an big dose of the unintentionally sick humor of the classic Struwwelpeter by today's standards. This is a classic on some level, not sure where or what. It is not that unusual a children's book when compared to other mid-Victorian attempts at the moral edification of youth. Perhaps a fear of the wages of infantile sins consisting of thumb sucking, poor grooming, cruelty, matches and finicky eaters would help with some of the childish monsters many parents raise today. I have a dream to place copies of Struwwelpeter in every waiting room in America for the kiddies enjoyment. Maybe the injections & dental drills will not seem so bad after all. Herr Hoffman, we thank you for disturbing innocent lullaby land with the dark creatures dwelling in the deep shadowy Tuetonic forests from whence you sprang, an unsung hero to real family values. I guarantee you cannot pick up this book without giggling. Enjoy & sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite...
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for all kids!
Review: Every kid should read this book! My German grandmother read my sister and I this book. We used to make fun of my sister because she was 'der Daumensauger' - the thumb sucker!
This book goes through the dangerous things kids do...and their consequences. Another reviewer talked about the TV commericials and how it makes it OK for kids to spill and break things. I completely agree. Kids today get away with everything. They weren't coddled in 1845 the way they were today.
This book is truthful. If you play with matches, you will get hurt. If you don't watch where you are going, you will fall. Duh. It doesn't shield kids from the real world.
I'm a teacher...perhaps I should read this book to my class and let them know what it COULD be like! (j/k)
Rating:
Summary: Twisted
Review: For those with a twisted sense of humor, and who appreciate the more intense form of fable, you'll love this. My siblings and I always wondered which one of our child-hating relatives had given us this as a gift--we were sure we spotted Shock Headed Peter one day! As much as we feared the book as kids, as adults we still fight over our time-worn paperback copy, amazed that it was once given to us in earnest. My guess is that Heinrich may have been a key influence on a little German boy named Adolph.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me Thinking
Review: I am 27 years old, and this and Max & Moritz are two of only a handful of items I have still retained from the earliest of my childhood. My real mother is German, and had these books and passed them down to my sister and I. She'd read these books to us many a time. It never scared me, but it truly fascinated me and taught me a lot about the concept of consequences at an early age. Is it extreme? Most definitely. The book was written during extreme times. It definitely doesn't offer any neo-psychological "positive reinforcement". This book is grim, and meant to teach children about moral character. I admire that in a day where even adults can't even speak to each other plainly. No beating around the bush here. My favorite part was the scissor guy, come to lop the thumbs off of a thumb-sucking child, after having been warned by his mother to stop the thumb-sucking. While living in Alabama, my step-mother had an uncle who lost a piece of his index finger. His story? He was picking his nose, and a "booger" bit off a chunk of his finger. Good lesson in not picking one's nose. That must have been 1986. Some lessons are timeless.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for all children!
Review: I had this book as a child, and it is a shame all children today don't have this. Could be that most children today can't read.
But it has pictures, so reading it to them should get the points across and into their heads.
This is a great book of a few "nursery ryhme" type stories of what happens to spoiled brat children when they don't bahave.
One such story is of one who sucks on his thumb, and a man with giant scissors comes in and cuts off his thumbs and the illustration shows the blood dripping from where the thumbs used to be.
It sickens me today to see TV commercials with children knocking over things, spilling things on carpets, and instead of the parent getting mad and telling the child that is WRONG and BAD, the commercials have the parents smiling and laughing and the announcer says: "Kids will be kids" and when you use thier amazing product, the spills will be cleaned up and so you can let your brats continue to break and spill things rather than teach them not to.
This book is back from the days where parents TAUGHT their kids right and wrong, not just let them run loose to cause whatever terrorism they wanted to.
We need more books like this.
At this price, we all can afford to buy several copies and hand them out to those children that we see running around screaming and terrorizing the neighborhood.
Rating:
Summary: A Grim Delight
Review: I read this little gem in 4th grade--my best friend stumbled across it somehow and showed it to me and we were both fascinated and disgusted (and a little frightened) by the stories and, more directly, by the charmingly rustic drawings. The now infamous story of Little Suck-a-Thumb made us both very relieved that we were, neither one, thumb-suckers. (the Red Long-Legged Scissor Man haunts me to this day...such a vivid and menacing figure, doncha think?) With Augustus--many modern women wish it were so easy to "become a little string". And as far as Harriet and the matches--I only wish my kitties would cry for me as Harriet's did...But I recommend this book heartily for adults who love the grim aspects of the Grimm fairy tales and anyone who liked the any Victorian/Edwardian "fairy stories" as a child (the original "Little Black Sambo" is another good vintage child's book...anyone reading it will see the racial aspects of the book are virtually non-existent. It only makes me hungry for pancakes!). Parental cautions? I am buying this for not only me but for my 7-month-old daughter. As to whether she will get to read it or not...well, I dunno. I think I will also buy a copy of "Peter Rabbit" as well. Mr MacGregor is a little less scary than the nasty red-long-legged Scissor Man.
Rating:
Summary: A children's book unlike any other
Review: I was raised on this book, given to me by a favorite aunt who was raised in Austria. The stories and drawings are simultaneously grim and clever, with lessons for children that have not been sugarcoated in the least. The book was originally written in German and one English version (not this one) was translated by Mark Twain. This book has lasted 150 years with good reason.
Rating: 
Summary: The Children's American Psycho!
Review: If you want to really punish your kids for something, give them this book for Christmas and they'll have nightmares till June. Adults love it for the extreme violence of the stories and pictures (we see the girl go up in flames, and the blood spurt out of the boy's severed thumbs) - but kids won't get this gothic black comedy, especially not those of Dr. Suess age. Interesting historically (it's mentioned in The Water Babies), but decidedly not for kids.
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