Judith Kerr

[narya_flame]

 I wanted to make a post about this wonderful author and what she meant to my siblings and I growing up - particularly her Mog books - but then I remembered this article that was published in The Guardian about a year and a half ago, and it sums her up far better than I could ever try to:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/28/how-to-live-well-judith-kerr-reasons-to-be-cheerful

Comments

[spiced_wine]

An amazing lady in every way!

[narya_flame]

I read that not long after I started writing regularly again, and the line about the beauty of shop windows lit up on a winter's evening made me cry.

She was an astonishing lady who led an incredible life. I adored When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit when I was young, I must track down a copy.

[spiced_wine]

There is a quote somewhere about writers always seeing and observing things like that :)

I do remember the Mog books as well! I am sure one of my aunts had all of them for my cousins

[notreallystars]

She was an incredible woman. I owe my love of reading to her and her books.

[narya_flame]

She was amazing.

(I got in this evening to discover my husband had bought a copy of The Tiger Who Came to Tea...)

[notreallystars]

Your husband sounds like an excellent person.

I've also been thinking of buying a copy...

[ysilme]

I'm mostly unfamiliar with her children's/picture books about Mog or the Tiger; of those, only one or two had been translated into German during my childhood, but were not very familiar (by age 12 I kind of knew every children and youth's book available in our library ;o) ), and I came across the first Mog volume only a couple of years ago. But at age 8 or so I was given When Hitler stole the Pink Rabbit, which impressed me enormously. Not only did it lead to a strong interest in anything that had to do with the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, including reading all the books more or less suitable for children about it - there were a lot of children's books about the subject in the late 70s and 80s, including lots and lots, often autobiographic, tales of Jewish children from that time. But particularly the Pink Rabbit Trilogy impressed me also in another way; about writing and becoming a writer. Through the focus of Anna, the protagonist, I kind of realised that becoming a writer is what I want to do as well, and also that it's entirely possible, instead of being something distant and only possible for very special people. *g* That I share the author's name was also a kind of sign to child me, and I've always been very grateful to Judith Kerr for giving me this inspiration and confidence.

[narya_flame]

Oh, what a legacy! <3

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is my favourite too.