Apart from ideas, sketches and drawings, Tomi Ungerer's notebooks show his predilection for aphorisms, puns and little stories. Out of this reservoir, a book has emerged for the first time which shows Tomi Ungerer's unusual side, which, however, is perhaps not that unusual after all: »I am a note-taker. I draw what I write down and I write down what I draw in order to express my thoughts clearly and succinctly«, as Ungerer himself puts it.

Tomi Ungerer answers children’s questions with the irreverent wisdom of a great artist who has never forgotten his inner child. The column from ›Philosophie Magazine‹ – in book form for the first time. »Why am I not you, and why are you not me? Who created God? If someone hits me, is it ok to hit back? Why does money exist? Could it be that I am only dreaming my life? Is there such a thing as nothing? Why do we have to love others and not just ourselves?« The great philosophical questions remain the same, be it two thousand years ago or yesterday, whether we are eighty or eight years old. Tomi Ungerer, the world-famous artist and children’s book writer, is also an idiosyncratic thinker and an untiring champion against prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Children from France and Germany asked him their questions. Ungerer’s answers are surprising, cheeky, funny, thought-provoking – and always inspiring. A philosophy book that makes readers want to think – whether they are children or adults.

The Warsaw ghetto is in flames, only a few Jews are still alive. One of the last insurgents, Yosl Rakover, remains hidden in a burning house. With his fallen companions at his side and death swiftly approaching, he writes down the feelings of one of a million Jews whose family has been murdered in the Holocaust, whose people have been annihilated. Alongside all of the pain that he has suffered, he describes his longing for revenge and the sweet gratification at the sight of the dying enemy. In harsh words, Yosl Rakover takes to task his God, who has turned His back on the world; but despite all of these tests and punishments, he holds fast to his faith: In the final analysis, Rakover addresses God as a faithful believer but not an indebted petitioner, a lover of God but not a blind Amen-sayer. Originally a work commissioned by the Jewish Newspaper in Buenos Aires, 'Yosl Rakover Talks to God' established itself in its own right in remarkable fashion following its initial publication in the year 1946. For many years, the text, translated into countless languages, was purported to be an authentic document from the Holocaust – in anthologies, newspapers and radio broadcasts. In 1962, Emmanuel Levinas devoted an entire study to it, while the text was included in the Jewish prayer book in America and found its way into schoolbooks in Germany. The myth concerning the origin of the text continues to blossom. One hears that the manuscript was written by an anonymous author, or that the text is a work of fiction but that Yosl Rakover did indeed exist. Kolitz' attempts to remind the world of his authorship, which he had never denied, were mostly in vain – the myth is seemingly written in stone. After the library in Buenos Aires, where the original manuscript was rediscovered, was destroyed by fire as a result of a bomb attack, the fictitious history of Yosl Rakover's testament appeared to have found its analogy in reality.

Even before the volume ›Useless Thoughts‹, word got around that Tomi Ungerer was just as virtuous with a pen as with a pencil. He coaxes the deeper meaning from language, makes ludicrous connections, and twists and turns words come hell or high water. Wise jokes, revealing wordplay, pointed paradoxes – there is nothing more thoughtprovoking than reading these Tom-isms.

If there's one thing Piper Paw hates, it's being kissed by his doting mother, Mrs. Velvet Paw. And one day she does the unforgivable: she kisses Piper in front of his friends! »Kisses, kisses all the time,« howls Piper. »I don't like it. I don't want it. Good-morning kisses, licky kisses, soggy kisses!« What can Mrs. Paw do? She answers her son with a surprise of her own – and it's not a kiss. Piper Paw's rambunctious story is sure to fascinate ist readers – kissers and non-kissers alike. No kiss for mother? All right! But a big one for Tomi Ungerer.

In six decades, Tomi Ungerer has created a collection of work that can hardly be beaten in terms of variety. He is renowned as a poetic and cheeky children's author, for his idyllist illustrations in the ›Big Songbook‹, as a societal satirist, as a genial graphic artist in advertising, as an illustrator, empathic autobiographer and vicious aphorist – in short, as an artist and author who has produced tens of thousands of drawings and over 100 books published by Diogenes alone. When it comes to Tomi Ungerer, there is one thing you can expect: the unexpected. This motto, Ungerer's own, unites this collection of essays about this exceptional artist – by Manuel Gasser, Walter Killy, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Werner Spies, Anna Gavalda and Elke Heidenreich amongst others, including some texts by Tomi Ungerer himself.