The best children's and young adult books for Easter

“Boubo so big” by Beatrice Alemagna

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What is Boubo? A little bear? A small dog? A dark brown piggy? This is not entirely clear from the pictures by the Italian illustrator Beatrice Alemagna. Her figures look like they have been cut out, pasted into colored pencil scenes in muted colors, a bit as if they were painted by a child's hand. In any case, Boubo is already big, he thinks, yes, the biggest of all (here you have to hold the book upright, Boubo is depicted so BIG and filling two pages). But Boubo is still wearing a diaper, so is he…still…small? The solution comes at the end when Boubo's bear, dog and pig mother gives him a big kiss on his trunk and muzzle in his bed in the evening and says: “Sleep well, my BIGGEST TREASURE!” Kathleen Hildebrand

“My Furious, Stinky Day” by Rebecca Patterson

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What helps when your toddler has one of those days where one tantrum follows another? A look at the parent's guide for needs-oriented parenting? Oh well. To wind down, perhaps this exceptionally cheerful picture book is called “My Big Shouting Day” in the original English and for which Rebecca Patterson was awarded the “Roald Dahl Funny Prize” in 2012. Little Bella is the narrator here, she wakes up already angry. “Then I went downstairs and saw THAT EGG. I whimpered and cried and screamed: I CAN'T EAT THAT!” Bella's text screams out of the images in thick black capital letters. The fact that she is a real cliche girl, with princess outfits, ballet lessons and a favorite story about “fairies and cakes”, contrasts wonderfully with her uncontrolled anger. In the evening, Bella, completely exhausted, comes to her senses and does what most parents can only dream of after days like this. She says, “I'm sorry.” Kathleen Hildebrand

“This is not a dinosaur book!” by Melina Schoenborn

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This non-fiction book is not about dinosaurs, but about squirrels – but ultimately it is, above all, a very funny lesson in attention economics. A storyteller squirrel presents facts about his fellow squirrels with great verve (Cute! Skilled in trees! Simply fascinating!), but a Tyrannosaurus Rex constantly runs into the picture, finds everything the squirrel says “boring” and claims to be dinosaurs are much more exciting. Because of the bitter argument between the two (emotion!), you remember the information about squirrels really well – did you know that there are 262 different species of them worldwide and that the smallest squirrel only measures 13 centimeters? Kathleen Hildebrand

“Clumsy Lemmel” by Leyb Kvitko

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The “Tollpatsch Lemmel” is a mixture of Pumuckl (red hair), Astrid Lindgren's “Michel” and “Max and Moritz”, but in friendly – and in Yiddish. Its inventor is the poet Leyb Kvitko, his six Lemmel poems from the years after 1919 have now been bundled into a picture book for the first time by the Jewish Ariella publishing house in Berlin and, apart from a few publications in the GDR, have been made available to a German audience. Lucky. Because here a very special combination is created – children's poetry that tells of a time before the great horror of the Shoah in a fun-loving and light-hearted manner.

Read Marco Mach’s full review here.

“I am here!” by Joke van Leeuwen

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When a river floods the city, Jona, who is playing in her father's office building, is forgotten there – she is stuck there for several days, between filing cabinets and swivel chairs. But Jonah doesn't panic or feel sorry for himself, on the contrary. Your spirit of discovery transforms the gray high-rise into a place full of surprises. With Jona, Joke van Leeuwen has created a character whose courage, curiosity and special way of thinking are reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking and Ronja the Robber's Daughter. Less cheeky perhaps, but at least as brave. The book is a hero's journey that gives children, and especially young girls, courage.

Read Christina Lopinski’s full review here.

“Who will get Ronaldo?” by Benjamin Tienti

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Niven, ten or eleven years old, is the contemporary embodiment of the classic Berlin brat: brash, fearless, energetic. The seven of her live in two rooms with her family, but she could change something if she were to collect the finder's fee that a fortune teller offered for an escaped, psychically gifted chameleon. Sounds crazy? It is – but in a cheerful way: Quirky allotment gardeners, a clingy nerd and a dubious clique from a Treptow high-rise estate quickly become involved in the search. Nothing goes as hoped, but everything adds up to a quick comedy, a game about a “room for yourself”, seasoned with the rough charm of the Berlin snout. Michael Smith

“Grass Beneath My Feet” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

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Ada lives in one of the poorest parts of London. She is locked up at home, is abused and knows nothing of the world because her mother, out of shame about her disability, won't let her go out. But then she runs away. She has taught herself a kind of limp with her club foot – and so secretly gets involved in the children's country deportation, with which her six-year-old brother was brought to the countryside in 1939 to protect them from Hitler's bombs. When they arrive in a village in Kent, no one wants to take in the poor siblings. The fact that the two of them are foisted on a lonely woman turns out to be a stroke of luck. Ada learns to ride and learns how healing nature can be. To put it more drastically, as the original title “The war that saved my life” expresses: In this case, war saves lives. “Grass Under My Feet” is a sensitively told story of self-discovery – and liberation.

Read Antje Weber’s full review here.

“And the world, it flies up” by Sarah Jäger

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Outside, where Yuri isn't, it's summer. The others are in the outdoor pool or in the ice cream parlor. He is afraid of the world. A WhatsApp message hits like a comet. “Hello, is anyone there?” Ava asks. Ava and he know each other from elementary school, but now Ava is grounded “because of something.” One isn't allowed out – the other doesn't want to. Between these poles, the author Sarah Jäger develops an excellent game of self-expression and self-knowledge. To do this, she uses a form that is as youthful and contemporary as it is unusual: the novel consists exclusively of short messages. Soon Ava and Juri become more and more open about what's bothering them – they begin to take off into their own lives.

Read the full review by Christine Knödler here.

“This is NOT the end” by Molly Morris

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People who fall from a roof are most likely no longer alive. That's what Hugh thinks too, before one afternoon he sees his former, somewhat strange classmate Olivia fall from a height of several meters – after which she is completely uninjured. Olivia has a special gift: her wounds heal on their own within a few minutes. Hugh, who has few friends and writes a blog about movie endings, doesn't know at this point that he and Olivia will soon be spending a lot of time together. Together they set off for New York in Hugh's sister's old ice cream truck, from where Olivia wants to retrieve a stolen box with valuable contents. That won't be easy, because the two are very different: Hugh has reservations about everything, while Olivia is brimming with creative ideas. She brings a lighthearted feeling to the story and makes it exciting and thrilling with her crazy ideas. A great book for young people who enjoy diving into a world full of adventure with a pinch of fantasy and, last but not least, a love story. Helene Hahn