Judith Kerr

[Hovverry]

I love Mog as much as anybody but am disappointed with Judith Kerr’s 3 autobiographical books (When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit etc)
Her story of life as a refugee is interesting but I found the books poorly written. They, like her illustrations, are amateurish.
Does anyone agree or am I being beastly to a national treasure?

They are aimed at children so 'simply' written. Also when she wrote the third book she was actually unaware of some of the depression and fear issues that her parents were struggling with during those years.

Ahh @Hovverry I have to disagree - I read these books as an older child/teenager and absolutely adored them then and still love them now! They sparked my lifelong love of historical based fiction - particularly for the WW2 period.
Funnily enough I’ve not read any of the Mog books with my little one yet!

When Hilter Stole Pink Rabbit was my favourite book when I was about eight and I have re-read it many times. I have also gifted this book many times.

I enjoyed the second book in the series (It has been re-titled since I read it and not for the good of the book imo).
The third book "A small person far away". I found a harder read but very insightful.

I’m afraid I completely disagree. They have a childlike voice and are very bare in style.

I find when I read them I can hear the voice of a refugee child used to speaking German translating thoughts slightly awkwardly into English.

It was an incredible achievement that Judith Kerr’s brother came to England as a native German speaker I believe aged 12 and managed to become fluent enough in English to end up as a High Court judge.

I think it is the slightly halting voice of a young child who isn’t a native speaker that can be heard in the narrative

I loved books 1 and 2 when I was a child - as did my children. I still love When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, but found The Other Way Round (in my opinion a much better title) an enormously sad book reading it as an adult.

I think they're beautifully written- I read them before I had heard of Mog. I still cant read the final book without crying whne she goes back to Germany.

I absolutely love these books and loved the way they were written - they're aimed at children and written in the voice of a little girl trying to get her thoughts across.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is one of my favourite books of all time and I only just recently re-read it!

My 10 year old daughter has recently read these and really enjoyed them all. We are also big fans of Mog.

I love When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I think the writing is spare, but wonderfully effective in conveying the world of a 10yo.

I recently read all three, having bought the first one for my DD to read. Absolutely loved them. Simple narrative yet manages to capture and convey so much without having to spell it out to the reader.

I really enjoyed reading them...as a child.....

Adore When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. The other two are understandably harder and less funny reads but very poignant and insightful. Oddly, I'm not a huge fan of Mog!

I disagree OP. I credit When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, read when I was about 8, as one of the pivotal points where my love of history began. I've reread it countless times since then, as well as her two subsequent memoirs. The writing is childlike, but that just makes it all the more real and endearing.

And the pictures are not amateurish.

Did you think they were written for adults, OP?

My daughters were about eight when they read WHSPR, too.

I loved them when I was 7. I look forward to reading them with my kids. The drawings are fine. They are children's books.

I tried teaching some 11 year olds WHSTPR and they hated it, wouldn't entertain it! I gave up!

They are fantastic books, and convey the child's perspective beautifully.

I loved them when I was a child

I absolutely loved WHSPR. my oldest recently read it and was similarly keen. I can still remember so much of the story because it made such an impression on me.

I love Mog. I particularly like Goodbye Mog when she sees the family grieving her and thinks, 'good, I was a pretty special cat.' It makes me laugh every time (and despite not believing in any sort of afterlife it amuses me to think of looking down in my funeral and thinking the same!!

I adored WHSPR as a child and re-read it countless times. DD1 read it and enjoyed it recently, so I re-read it again. It still held up very well and I found the part about Onkel Julius so much more upsetting reading it as an adult.

@IPityThePontipines I love the book but that’s why I can’t read it. My great grandfather died because he wouldn’t leave

DH read WHSPR to DD2 recently. They both adored it (one of my favourite childhood books along with Carrie's War but DH was coming to it as an adult never having read it) so have now got the full series.

@Onceuponatimethen I am so sorry.

@IPityThePontipines thank you. It is a very sad story - he was a very talented man and arranged for his wife and children to leave but didn’t go himself, even though he apparently had the chance.