Was denkt die Maus am Donnerstag? 121 Gedichte für Kinder

by Josef Guggenmos

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Childrens

118 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the 121 poems featured in Josef Guggenmoos' 1967 Was denkt die Maus am Donnerstag? (translated as What Does the Mouse Think on Thursday? and this being the title of one of the included poems, and likely the most universally known of the collection) are meant for children and immensely suitable for children, personally, I would tend to recommend these verses more for children above the ages of five or six than for the very young (as while there is nothing even remotely inappropriate featured in any way, much of the vocabulary and even some of the humour might be a bit beyond toddlers just learning their letters). And with that salient fact in mind, I do have to personally wonder and even somewhat question why Was Denkt die Maus am Donnerstag? is featured in Julia Eccleshare's 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before Growing Up in the section for toddlers from about three to five years old.

But yes, Was denkt die Maus am Donnerstag? is a simply superb, often wildly humorously entertaining anthology of rhythmic and lyrical verses to make both children and their parents, their caregivers (and anyone, actually) smile and laugh, and indeed also think, ponder, cogitate (with the fact that much of Guggenmos' poetry is still often read in German elementary school classrooms telling of its lasting popularity, and that the often witty verses and rather twisted and surprising endings lead themselves very well to discussion and debate). Highly recommended, but with the caveat that these poems are in German, and thus a certain and decent amount of fluency is definitely required. And while there actually does seem to be an English language translation of Was denkt die Maus am Donnerstag? available, I am not so sure I would want to recommend it without reservations, as translated poetry is often at best rather a pale mirror image of the original (and with Josef Guggenmos and his rather constant witticisms, I Indeed would be extremely worried that ANY translation would likely rather fail to adequately show and present the this).

[Kristal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book by using the translate app on my phone- pointing the camera at the pages and reading the English translation that way. Obviously it’s not the best way to read it, but I enjoyed many of the poems and largely got the gist. I enjoyed the cute illustrations too. I noted some of the poems I particularly enjoyed:

-the poem about the boy losing his mouse and putting a notice in the newspaper only to get 75 mice was funny

-good lesson with the poem about not swimming near sharks when people warn you!

-I thought the story about the checkered giraffe visiting a girl and essentially being a tunnel for traffic was cute

-the story about the kid feeding a crocodile chocolate so they won’t be eaten is cute

-the dog thinking it caught a snake but it was actually his own tail was cute and funny

-the poem about a “fat man running away” turned out to be a snowman melting!

I laughed out loud with the poem about the snake who questions why all people are stupid- exterminating flowers and mushrooms due to ignorance

-the 7 snails making jokes only to fall over was cute

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not the biggest fan of nonsense verse for children. Well written, but only a few of the poems caught my eye. Perhaps something was lost in the translation.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably would have enjoyed these poems better if my German was much better. There were a few poems, even after I translated them, that didn't seem to make sense to me; probably because there were German idioms or plays on words that I didn't understand. Still, all the poems that I could understand were humorous and enjoyable.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.dtv.de/_files_media/title...

(this is the first 20 pages, and it's enough for me to get a good idea of the fun JG has with words and children's nonsense thoughts)