Emil and the Detectives

Emil and the Detectives
ISBN: 9780099572848
Publication Date: 1 August 2012

'Emil is a wonder... the book had, and still has, the effect of making me feel part of Emil's little gang of boys... Emil and the Detectives is a little masterpiece... Read it and you will be happy' Maurice Sendak

'Password Emil!'

Emil is excited to be taking the train on his own for the first time. He doesn't like the look of his fellow passenger, the man in the bowler hat. Emil will just have to keep his wits about him and his money in his pocket. But Emil falls asleep and when he wakes up the man in the bowler hat is gone - and so is the money! Emil is determined to get it back. He teams up with a gang of young detectives and so begins a hair-raising chase across Berlin to catch the dirty rotten thief...

About the Author

Erich Kastner was born in Dresden in Germany in 1899. Much like Emil himself Erich Kastner was an only child. He was devoted to his mother who worked as a hairdresser to supplement their family income. Erich Kastner went into the army in 1917, and his experiences there made him feel strongly that war and violence were wrong. He published Emil and the Detectives in 1928 and Emil and the Three Twins in 1933.

The books were very popular but when Hitler's government - the Nazis - were in power Kastner's books were labelled anti-German. Joseph Goebbels, who was in charge of the Government Propaganda, said "In the name of the fight against decadence and moral corruption! In the name of breeding and rectitude in state and family, I consign to the flames the writings of Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glasser and Erich Kastner!" Erich Kastner was one of the only authors who was present as his books were tossed on to the flames in 1933. Luckily, although Hitler and Goebbels had Kastner's books thrown on to the fire, Emil has outlas...