The Flying Classroom
Illustrations by Walter Trier
A delightful and moving story of boyhood adventures, friendships and anxieties, set in a 1930s boarding school
'Walter Trier's deceptively innocent drawings are as classic as Kästner's words; I never tire of them' Quentin Blake
Martin’s school is no ordinary school. There are snowball fights, kidnappings, cakes, a parachute jump, a mysterious man called ‘No-Smoking’ who lives in a railway carriage and a play about a flying classroom.
As the Christmas holidays draw near, Martin and his friends – nervous Uli, cynical Sebastian, Johnny, who was rescued by a sea captain, and Matthias, who is always hungry (particularly after a meal) – are preparing for the end-of-term festivities. But there are surprises, sadness and trouble on the way – and a secret that changes everything.
The Flying Classroom is a magical, thrilling and bittersweet story about friendship, fun and being brave when you are at your most scared. (It also features a calf called Eduard, but you will have to read it to find out why.)
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The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut which is funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Newly translated from the German by Anthea Bell, an award-winning translator who, after studying English at Oxford, has had a long and successful career translating works from French, German and Danish. She is best known for her translations of the much-loved Asterix books, Stefan Zweig and W.G. Sebald.
160pp
Published 06/11/2014
ISBN 9781782690566
Pushkin Children’s Special Paperback
£7.99
