On 2009-12-15 H. Schneider, window seat wrote: My kids grew up with this. Or rather, they spent a substantial slice of their childhood with characters from Michael Ende´s Jim Knopf series, translated as Jim Button. Much of this exposure was not so much by reading the books but listening to audio tapes and watching TV versions, in a puppet show. That´s how I shared a lot of it, eg on car trips.
Unfortunately, since the girls moved out of the house in the meantime, their best books from childhood have been boxed, so I could not pick Jim up and refresh my memory better.
I remember I was particularly fond of the dragon in the first book of the series, where Jim and his friend Luke the locomotive engine driver went to China on some mission.
The best volume in the series, as I recall it, is the Wild Thirteen, an encounter with a pirate gang of 12. If you want to have an explanation for this arithmetical contradiction, you will have to read the book or listen to the tape!
Another fond memory is of the character ´der Scheinriese´, translatable as the Illusionary Giant. That giant looks huge from a distance, but shrinks to normal size when in proximity. I forgot all about the problems that this difficulty causes for the poor giant, but the basic concept has stuck in my active memory of stereotypes. I run into Scheinriesen all the time!
Ende is better known for his ´larger´ books, mainly the Neverending Story, which I personally don´t like half as much as Jim Knopf.
So, if you are in need of a dragon, go to China with Jim and Luke!
P.S. in case that you wonder why I posted the review without access to the actual book or tape, it is all Judy´s fault! she forced me to review a children´s book!. And summed up by saying Best dragon in literary history!. Currently Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver has an overall rating of 10 over 10.
Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver can also be found in the following searches:
Overlook Juvenile claimed Having turned their railroad engine into a boat and set sail for adventure because their island has become too crowded, Jim Button and Luke try to rescue the kidnapped Princess of China from Dragontown.