Auf dem Lande

by Ali Mitgutsch

Bei uns im Dorf - bk1147; Otto Maier Verlag; Ali Mitgutsch; Paperback; 1970

16 pages, Board Book

First published August 28, 1986

About the author

"Am 21. August 1935 in München geboren, begann Mitgutsch seine Karriere begann er als Grafiker. Als er einige Ideen und Skizzen für Kinderbücher nach Ravensburg schickte, erkannte die junge Redakteurin Dorothee Hess-Maier (die spätere Verlegerin und Börsenvereinsvorsteherin von 1989 bis 1992) das Potenzial des neuartigen Illustrationsstils, den besonderen Witz der Darstellung und den Ideenreichtum. Was klein anfing, wurde für ihn zum Lebensthema. 1968 erschien sein erstes Wimmelbuch "Rundherum in meiner Stadt" im Ravensburger Verlag. 1969 erhielt Ali Mitgutsch für den Titel den Deutschen Jugendbuchpreis. Mehr als 70 Bücher, Poster und Puzzles erschienen mit seinen Figuren und Zeichnungen, viele sind zu Klassikern geworden." (Source: Börsenblatt: https://www.boersenblatt.net/news/lit...)

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although for the most part Ali Migutsch's Auf dem Lande (the title in English would be translated as In the Country) is pretty much exactly akin and alike to his Rundherum in meiner Stadt (with instead of city life, five rural German farming scenes being depicted wordlessly without accompanying text, and both ultra modern farms and farms where the owners seem to also be into promoting alternatives and being less dependent on machinery), Auf dem Lande also features one illustrative spread where Ali Mitgutsch shows and lists modern farm machinery and equipment and another where how farming was generally engaged in one hundred years ago is shown. And indeed, with these two pictures, Auf dem Lande actually somewhat rises above and beyond being just a wordless picture book, as the objects and people presented and shown also have their German word definitions included either underneath or beside them (and sometimes these nouns are definitely not just simple and easy vocabulary choices, which makes Auf dem Lande also a book that might be used with older children to familiarise them with German farming practices then and now and how things have changed from the 19th to the 20th century).

Highly recommended for both young and old, and indeed, even if you do not speak or read German, there are nevertheless still more than enough wordless rural scenes present in Auf dem Lande for you or for your children to be able to spend more than enough time looking at, pondering over the detail heavy but still and fortunately not overly exaggerated various illustrated scenes. However and finally, I do feel that I should still (albeit a trifle grudgingly) at least leave the caveat that there certainly are a few visuals of children acting mischievously (and perhaps sometimes even in a potentially dangerous manner) in Auf dem Lande, that of course and naturally Ali Mitgutsch also includes images of baby animals such as young calves suckling their mothers (and yes that in the depicted Bier Garten in one of the scenes, beer is of course being both served and joyfully consumed, a scene very much typical for Germany and especially for rural Bavaria, but I guess this could perhaps offend those who would consider any form of alcohol anathema and potentially dangerously inappropriate).