For all those who have always shied away from the sheer length of the original Urs Widmer has carefully abridged the wonderful Tales From the Arabian Nights while preserving their oriental flavour. Highly vivid and amusing, he recounts the six most famous tales of the immortal Sheherazade: The Fisherman and the Jinni, Alibaba and the Forty Thieves, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, The Magic Horse, The Adventures of Haroun-al-Raschid, and Sinbad the Sailor.
As Hermann Hesse pointed out, the original of this great collection of fairytales is »a source of infinite pleasures and the most opulent picture book in the world«. To ensure that this holds true, Tatjana Hauptmann has richly illustrated this work, conveying Oriental lavishness and subtlety.

One of the greatest stories for children has now been illustrated by the great artist and renowned illustrator Tatjana Hauptmann. Everyone knows Peter Pan and Wendy, the fairy Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys, Captain Hook with his pirate ship the Jolly Roger. But you have never seen the story of the boy who refused to grow up like this: With her dreamlike playful illustrations in magnificent full colour, Tatjana Hauptmann has created an opulent masterpiece, a delight for the eyes, the perfect depiction of a land inhabited by fairies and home to the cheekiest boy in the world. More than 50 mainly colour illustrations by Tatjana Hauptmann.

Eleven-year-old Tanya is going out of her mind with boredom. What use is a sunny beach if she has to take care of her little brother Boris all the time? But then, while diving, she finds an old, stone-encrusted tankard. She tries to open it – and suddenly a strange little man creeps out of the bushes. His trousers are tucked into top boots, his shirt is covered in lace, and he is sporting a moustache almost as long as the braid of hair on his head. The little man chases after Tanya, explaining that they have an 'astral connection' and that, unfortunately, he must now fulfil her every wish, for she has broken the tankard in which he has been imprisoned for the last three hundred years. At first Tanya thinks that the man is crazy, but then she remembers a fairy tale and a cartoon film in which a spirit fulfils wishes. Are you some sort of genie? she asks the old man. A genie?!! I am a magician, he replies indignantly. A magician, I tell you – and a great magician at that!

A children's book by John Irving? Indeed, nothing could be more natural – as no other author has handled the themes of childhood, adolescence and the coming of age as well as Irving. Sometimes children's stories are hidden within stories for adults – one has only to discover them. ›A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound‹ is the adventure of a brave young boy who has a bad dream, and sets out with his father in the middle of the night to find the source of a ghostlike sound – and chase it away.

»The twilight of evening. Big flakes of wet snow are whirling lazily about the street lamps, which have just been lighted, and lying in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses' backs, shoulders, caps. Iona Potapov, the sledge-driver, is all white like a ghost. He sits on the box without stirring, bent as double as the living body can be bent.«
Thus begins the story of a sledge-driver and his horse. The story referred to in the title is about the dachshund Kashtanka who, having lost his master, discovers the colourful world of the circus. Grisha, a tubby little boy, goes walking out on the boulevard with his nurse for the first time in his life. And when Major-General Buldeeff is suffering from toothache, everyone searches desperately for a »horsey name.«
Chekhov's stories have been referred to as a fin de siècle encyclopaedia of Russian life. They are the illustrated newspaper of his times, based on Chekhov's observations of everything and everyone: the middle classes, officials, the aristocracy – but animals too, and miracle-workers and, last but not least, children.

The little plastic dinosaur – gone. Karl's left goalkeeper's glove – missing. The new umbrella cover – lost without a trace. Karl is always losing things. ›You have to start looking after your things better!‹ say his parents. That is what Kasper says too. Kasper is Karl's best friend – a hand puppet who comes to life when he puts his hand in it. But that does not help Karl. Things come to a head when he loses Kasper in the park. Karl sets out on an expedition for somewhere, there must exist a place where all the lost things end up. And Karl does not mean the lost property office. One night, under a full moon, his little dog Timo puts him on the right track... An adventurous story about how you sometimes have to lose (almost) everything to find the thing that's most important.

An exciting story revolving around a few wrong letters on which a lottery win of 100'000 earthworms depended. If only the pig hadn't got such terrible trotters…

As Novalis said, »Everything is a fairy tale.« But not all fairy tale anthologies are like The Giant Book of Fairy Tales by Tatjana Hauptmann – a true classic for the entire family, a book of magical beauty. This collection of the 100 best fairy tales from Europe is magnificently adorned with a colourful and enchanting palette of 600 drawings and watercolours.

The artist Tatjana Hauptmann, recipient of many international awards, spent several years working on her meticulous illustrations of ›The Great Book of Legends‹. The Best Medieval Legends of Gods, Heroes and Knights, edited by Johannes Carstensen. The result is two beautiful volumes, the first of which has now been issued. The unique drawings and colour plates breathe life into the world of the Nibelungen, King Arthur, Robin Hood, Tristan and Isolde and many others, and take us to a land of fantasy which it is always a joy to visit.