Benny discovers the world of plants, where everything grows and shoots and sprouts. What does a bean turn into? And an orange pip? And what is a pistill, anyway? A book that invites you to playfully discover nature, and to be curious.

This extravagantly designed, exclusive art volume presents approx. 330 illustrations, paintings and collages, many of them previously unpublished. 

Angry and ironic, tender and wonderful: Tomi Ungerer’s America in pictures and texts.

When Tomi Ungerer moved from the Alsace to New York in the mid-1950s and began to work as a graphic designer and illustrator, a crazy new world opened itself up to him, which the talented artist transformed into what are perhaps the most remarkable and powerful works of his career. Expressive and universal pictures which present the land of opportunities in a unique manner.

Little Jonathan is a real rascal. When he plays football, not a single window pane is safe. There’s not a mealtime when his plate doesn’t end up on the floor. And there’s no pleasing him: if he is given pasta, he wants rice. If rice is served, he wants pasta. He throws tantrums, screams, pulls other children by the hair. Not to mention the pranks! In their despair, his parents turned to Dr. Carrother. Does he perhaps know a cure?

Giraffe and Mouse really don’t have much in common – it’s more than the fact that one of them is huge and the other is tiny. But when a fire threatens to destroy the forest, Mr. Tall and Mr. Small join forces to save all the animals.

One was big.
One was small.
Mouse was short.
Giraffe was tall.
Mouse was hardly there at all –
They called him Small.

Giraffe was tannish,
Mouse was gray,
Mouse liked night,
Giraffe liked day,
Giraffe could see three miles away –
They called him Tall.
 

Frances doesn’t want to go to bed – just like every child in the world, just like you. But then her dad has a good idea: We'll play the face-making game! Frances has to look angry. Then happy. Then surprised. And now it’s your turn! Join Frances in making all sorts of faces: confused, sick, snooty, sweet, thoughtful ... It makes you really tired, and before you know it, it’s slumber time.

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.

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.

Why are sea horses always fidgety on Fridays? And how can you tell when a Rolls-Royce is hungry? You don’t know? Don’t worry, because it turns out the whole world is a question mark. Or at least the world created in this book of questions by Tomi Ungerer’s ingenious drawings: never before has someone created such cryptic but beautiful shenanigans with a punctuation mark. Pictures you will wish to look at again and again, absurd questions without answers, illustrations of unique beauty: this book is sure to leave all questions open!

»One, Two, where's my Shoe? – Three, Four, on the Floor!« – These are the only words Tomi Ungerer needs for a story. The rest is told by his subtle and shrewd pictures, which seem to take the viewer for a fool – until he can't help but smile in recognition: Across the book's pages, Tomi Ungerer's pencil conjures up dragonflies, soldiers, scarecrows, a pig and even an ocean liner. And the line is always: ›One, Two, where's my Shoe?‹

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.

A treasure box of children's books by Tomi Ungerer with four of the greatest classics: ›The Three Robbers‹, ›Moon Man‹, ›I am Papa Snap‹, ›Crictor‹. Anniversary edition to commemorate Tomi Ungerer's 80th birthday.

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.

Idi and his parents have moved to a new town. He doesn't know anyone there and so nobody comes to his birthday. Thank goodness that, since he was little, his father has always given him tools as presents – at least Idi has something with which to keep himself busy. Out of the things that others throw away, he makes that which he does not have: friends. When Ki, the girl next door, hears the noise coming from Idi's workshop, she grows curious. What is that boy doing? »I'm making friends for myself,« he replies. All of a sudden Ki wants to help out with her sewing machine. The two of them have a lot of fun: while making friends, they become friends. Idi's and Ki's imaginative creations soon fill the whole front garden – the other children come to marvel and would like nothing better than for Idi and Ki to show them how to make ›new friends‹ like that. A children's book about the power of friendship, overcoming prejudice, the joy of creating something together and the unifying force of art and imagination.

Finally they return: Tomi Ungerer's original picture book family – the marvellous Mellops. Whether as cave explorers or aircraft builders, when drilling for oil or hunting for treasure – it is soon apparent that the Mellops family is no ordinary family of pigs. The Mellops family love challenges. The result – spectacular lastminute rescues from a rubber dinghy punctured by stalagmites, forest fires and beaches on deserted islands ... But one thing is certain: having survived the most perilous adventures, the pigs can always look forward to Mrs. Mellops’ wonderful cream cake. All five adventures of the Mellops family in one volume.

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.