Emil and the Detectives

by Erich Kästner

Other authorsMaurice Sendak (Introduction), Walter Trier (Illustrator), J. D. Stahl (Translator)
Hardcover, 2007

Description

Emil, Gustav, and a group of young detectives outwit criminals and the police when they comb the city in their quest to recover Emil's stolen money.

Publication

The Overlook Press (2007), Edition: 1, 220 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member thorold
This was one of my favourite books as a child, and I still get a little frisson whenever I visit Berlin and pass through Bahnhof Zoo. Berlin seemed a remote and exotic place to me in the 1960s (I'd never been further east than Dortmund), but Kästner chose to set his story there for the opposite
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reason: he wanted a prosaic, familiar setting. In his introduction (which is meant to be read as part of the story) he explains that he'd originally started writing an exciting adventure story set in the South Seas, but had to give up after three chapters when he realised that he didn't know how many legs a whale has. On the advice of a waiter, he started again with a setting rather closer to home. We should probably be thankful that they didn't have Wikipedia in those days!

Still charming, exciting and funny eighty years on, and definitely recommended for any child. But don't be surprised if they demand a motor horn for their next birthday!
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LibraryThing member nandadevi
Credit to Kastner for being persistently anti-war in Germany both before, during and after the Second World War, and for his impressively assured female character, Pony Hutchen (an early hero for any female who combines cycling and 'attitude'), and most of all for writing an entertaining
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light-yet-serious children's novel. I don't detect in these characters anything that might point to how all of them might shortly thereafter be swept up (or away) in horrors of Nazi Germany, but perhaps their very ordinariness is the key - than any society that might be depicted as so 'benign' is always at risk from fanatics at the edges.
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LibraryThing member wrichard
This is an excellent childrens book which I loved as a child and even as an adult find entertaining.
LibraryThing member raizel
Enjoyable story about a boy whose money is stolen while he is on train to Berlin. It has been made into a movie, apparently several times, and there is a sequel. And it portrays Germany before the Nazis.
LibraryThing member rachelfoster
One of my favorite books as a child.
LibraryThing member eglinton
Charming story of boyhood adventure. The innocence of the plot and the characters is a key part of that charm, aided by the straight-up line drawings of Walter Trier and a strapping plain font. The story too is simple and direct, told through Emil and his gang's experience, and Kästner treats them
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gently and kindly, leading the reader to rejoice at the children's triumphs. "It was all so thrilling that Emil began to feel almost pleased that his money had been stolen."
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LibraryThing member debnance
Emil is off to visit family in Berlin. On the train, he has his money stolen. But the thief underestimates the boy from whom he has snatched the money. Emil trails him and engages an entire troop of Berlin boys to track down the thief and confront him.

Very satisfying story of courage and valor.
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Refreshing.
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LibraryThing member ctpress
A classic german children’s story about a boy Emil who is going to deliver some money to his grandmother. But on the train he falls asleep, and his money is stolen - and the only other person in his carriage is gone - Emil finds him and follow him - and then he stumbles upon other children in
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Berlin who offer to help him track down the thief.

Enjoyed the innocence of Emil and his devotion to his mother - also the way the children work together - apart from grown ups who are no help at all - to catch the thief and get the money back.

It was actually the only pre-war book by Kästner, which escaped Nazi censorship. Has been translated into many languages - and Disney made a movie adaptation.
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LibraryThing member overthemoon
a very nice story and I really felt the atmosphere of Berlin with its traffic and noise. My only reservation is in some aspects of the translation: why convert the money to pounds, shillings and pence? - it would have been better left in Marks and Pfennigs. After all, in an American story one would
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expect dollars and in an Indian, rupees. And why translate some of the names (like little Tuesday) and not others (Pony Hütchen)?
The cloth used for the binding is beautiful, a subtle grey-brown stripe and very soft to the touch.
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LibraryThing member anneofia
While traveling by train to Berlin for a visit with his grandmother and his aunt and her family, young Emil has his money stolen. Emil thinks it almost had to have been Mr. Grundeis, a fellow passenger. He spots him getting off at the Zoological Gardens, and bravely follows him, for he must get his
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mother's money back! He is soon joined by a group of other children who all work together to track him down. The story is innovative, realistic and absolutly hilarious!
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LibraryThing member ChazziFrazz
A charming story written in 1929, tells how a group of children came together to right a wrong.

Emil is on the train to Berlin to visit his Grandmother. His mother has entrusted him with seven pounds, six of which he is to give to his Grandmother. As a safety measure, he pins the envelope inside his
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suit jacket.

While on the train, he shares a compartment with a man in a bowler hat. The had a little conversation and as time went on they both fell asleep. When Emil awoke, he found the man in the bowler hat was gone and so was the envelope with the money! What is he to do?

The story takes you on an fast ride where children Emil meets come together to help Emil find the man in the bowler hat and get his money back. Showing that people can work together and make things right again. The Professor, Gustav and his automobile horn, little Tuesday, Dienstag and more come to the aid of Emil in this classic children's mystery.

It is written in the style of the era, but it has body to the plot and the action. The characters are inventive in helping solve the mystery of the man in the Bowler hat and getting Emil's money back.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
Young Emil is off to visit his grandmother and aunt in Berlin, but has his money stolen from him on the train. He spends the rest of the book tracking down the thief, with the help of some kids he meets on the streets of Berlin.
This one is a complete hoot. Clever and witty and adorable.
LibraryThing member rakerman
Features not one but two streetcars: one horse-drawn and one electric.
LibraryThing member SimB
While asleep on a train to Berlin to visit his mother's relations, a man in a bowler hat steals seven pounds from Emil. He manages to the follow the man to a café. There he meets up with a local lad Gustav and het quickly enlist the help of several local children to follow the thief. He is
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followed to a hotel where he stays the night. By the morning many other children turn up at the hotel after hearing about the matter on the grapevine. When the thief leaves the hotel the next morning he is followed by the children and is accosted at a bank. After convincing the bank manager that the theft was real, the police are called. It turns out the thief is a notorious bank robber and Emil receives a fifty pound reward.
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LibraryThing member fingerpost
Oh, how I wish I had read this in 1975, back when I was about 10 years old! Had I read it then, I probably would have read it over and over.
Emil is a German boy in 4th grade who is sent by train to visit his Grandmother in Berlin. His mother has given him 140 marks, 120 for his Grandmother, and 20
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for his own use and to buy his train ticket home. Worried about losing the money, he pins it inside his suit jacket. Alas, he falls asleep on the train, and the money is stolen from him. As soon as he realizes he has been robbed, he knows it had to be "the man with the stiff hat" who was sharing the train compartment with him. So he gets off at the wrong station in order to follow the suspect.
In no time, Emil has gathered a gang of new friends, eager to play detective and catch the theif, and the bulk of the book describes their adventures as they figure out how to nab the crook and get back Emil's money.
Just delightful!
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LibraryThing member kslade
Great little fun story in Berlin about 1929. Group of kids follow adult thief to help Emil who is visiting his grandmother. I had it in German for a long time but never took the time to read it. Now that I've read it in English, I can try German again! This translation by J.D. Stahl is "toll" !
LibraryThing member elenchus
Great fun, a romp with jokes and badinage between characters, and endearing in its grounding in core relationships: between Emil and his mother, Emil and the Berlin boys who help him out. His cousin Pony the Hat threatens to derail the entire story, a force of nature on a bike.

Seemingly a very
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recent translation: the kids slang would appear to have been updated. "Awesome" and similar, though other epithets remained cutely old fashioned. Just what I'd hoped for a read-aloud with R.

The line drawings apparently the originals, a distinctive and "German" look.
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LibraryThing member mykl-s
Kastner's story is heartwarming and upbeat, and Walter Trier's graceful line drawings give life to the book.

The decision to change the character's German names into awkward American English in the ebook version I read is questionable, but the translation by Martin gives me a real feel for the
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story, its places, and the people in it.

This is one of those "children's" books that all us "adults" can happily read. It was written in 1929, in another country, but feels fresh and new and clear to me today.
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Awards

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1929

Physical description

220 p.; 5.5 inches

ISBN

1585675865 / 9781585675869
Page: 1.1531 seconds