Cherrypicker
Wittgenstein's Rhino

Recent picture books tell stories about animals that can be the best of friends. And how imagination opens our eyes to the invisible.

By Holger Moos

© Edition Nilpferd Minu is an imaginative, curious child. She loves nature, can hear the grass growing and Himmi, a little blue bird, is her best friend. But she misses her sympathetic grandma, who lives far, far away, somewhere in the south. One day Minu meets a mysterious man in a magic hat. This “mystery man” shows her very special flowers that allow favourite, distant people to come very close and perhaps even fulfil wishes. Minu und der Geheimnismann (Minu and the Mystery Man) is the name of this picture book by Andrea Karimé and illustrator Renate Habinger. The German Academy for Children’s and Youth Literature chose it as Picture Book of the Month for May 2023: “A picture book like a summer’s day: full of secrets, warmth, and poetry. Neologisms and word games are skilfully interwoven with the imaginative illustrations. From the first sentence, you are immersed in a story of friendship that is about longing, flowers, and words.” 

Crows save a life

© Hanser This year, the Swiss writer Franz Hohler turned 80. Together with the illustrator Kathrin Schärer, he created a touching picture book, Das kleine Wildschwein und die Krähen (The Little Wild Boar and the Crows). In it, Hohler tells of an unusual friendship between a little wild pig and the birds of the forest. The birds save the little boar’s life. The perfect animal drawings are moving without being kitschy and excellently convey emotions. According to Kathleen Hildebrand of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Hohler has “given himself and his readers, both young and old, a wonderful birthday present,” and it seems to the reviewer that “this time, Schärer’s loving, touching drawing style has rubbed off a little on Franz Hohler.” 

© NordSüd Verlag Ludwig und das Nashorn (Ludwig and the Rhino) by the illustrator duo Golden Cosmos and the author Noemi Schneider is first and foremost about fantasy. It all starts when a boy sees a rhinoceros in his room, which his father naturally doubts. So the boy tries to make his father understand that something can exist even if you don’t see it. That’s where the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein comes in, who also claimed that and to whom the picture book devotes an epilogue. The illustrations are particularly noteworthy, made using a silkscreen process in which drawings on paper were combined with print graphics on the computer. And the rhinoceros can be discovered somewhere in every picture. The book was selected by Deutschlandfunk for The 7 Best in March 2023 and won the Lynx of the Month for April 2023. The jury’s verdict: “It is a testament to great art how words and images are limited to the simplest in their interplay and at the same time make the invisible visible with great wit and warmth.”

Dauntless Luise

© Kunstanstifter There’s always something going on with Luise: As a toddler, she sets her pram in motion herself, she always hits the wrong notes on the piano, accidentally lets the water out of the sea, launches a rocket into space, and sometimes mistakes the accelerator for the brake. It’s no wonder that the grown-ups often call out, Aber Luise! (But Luise!) so often. And that’s what illustrator Franziska Neubert and Jürgen Banscherus named their new picture book. On an isolated planet, Luise finally meets Luis, who eventually becomes homesick for his parents. They return to Earth in a homemade rocket. The colourful woodcuts lend a cheerful mood to the enchanting, encouraging story.

© Aladin Was macht die Nacht? (What Does the Night Do?) A simple enough question, isn’t it? “What actually happens when I’m asleep?” a child asks his daddy while saying goodnight. He tells the child what happens during the night hours. It is so much, so fairytale-like and strange, so surprising and unbelievable, that the child first has to sleep on it. Atmospheric, colourful, and black-muted colours show a surreal dream world. Stiftung Lesen deemed it a very special picture book story: “Dreamlike illustrations, dark as night and full of fanciful details ... to read aloud, talk about, think about and fancy on about. For who knows whether the chestnut tree really does wash its leaves at night, two trains in love chase each other through the city, ghosts are suddenly afraid of people, or a giant accidentally steps on a building site?”