DOT AND ANTON

Witty yet mysterious Guardian Erich Kästner has a way of being very funny while also make a serious point Irish Times Dot loves play acting dressing up her pet dachshund Piefke and inventing words like splentastic Her best friend is Anton who lives in a tiny flat and looks after his mother They share a secret every night when their parents think they are asleep they sell matches and shoelaces on the streets of Berlin with Dot s grumpy governess But why The answers involve a villain called Robert the Devil a club wielding maid a wobbly tooth a pair of silver shoes and a policeman dancing the tango as Dot and Anton get into all sorts of scrapes in this delightful touching and hilarious adventure story Part of the new Pushkin Children s Classics series of thrilling magical and inspiring stories from around the world which young readers will return to time and again Translated by Antthea Bell Erich Kästner writer poet and journalist was born in Dresden in 1899 His first children s book Emil and the Detectives was published in 1929 and has since sold millions of copies around the world and been translated into more than 60 languages After the Nazis took power in Germany Kästner s books were burnt and he was excluded from the writers guild