Book of the Week - Wo ist mein hut?

It's funny how different book titles can be when translated into German, for instance Jon Klassen's book 'I want my hat back' has become Where is my hat? (Wo ist mein hut?) But I actually think this is a better title in this case. Because the bear travels through the book not knowing where his hat is. It's got a great little twist in the end and has a couple of animals throwing a wobbler for no reason, much as a toddler does, of course (although to them of course, there is always a reason) Perfect for an adult learning German like me and the simple illustrations are refreshingly understated, enhancing the comedy in this book. Both of my girls, aged 6 and 9 loved it.

Vocab

Mein hut ist weg – My hat has gone

ich will ihn züruck – I want it back

Schon gut – alright

Trotzdem vielen Dank – Thanks anyway

klettern – to climb

spitz – pointed

über alles – more than anything

Children's books are the way forward

Each week I arrange to meet my daughters in the village library after school and proceed to work my way through a picture book in my quest to learn German. I must look very odd to the locals sitting in the tots corner with an over-sized book on my knee but the librarians are lovely and have even started getting dual German/English language books in for me!

And - brace yourselves - I've now worked my way up to the more sophisticated picture book which features three of four sentences on each page - wowee (although I still need to refer to my Google Translate app constantly) And as I work my way through each book I make a note of certain words and phrases in my German vocab list on my iPhone, to go over whenever I have a minute.

And it occurred to me on my last visit that this would be a helpful feature for visitors to my blog. So I have now included this in the right hand column, featuring the book in question. Do let me know if you find this helpful or a complete waste of time.

This week featured a lovely little story about a mole who found an icicle which he thought was a magic diamond. His friends put him right but then the final glittery illustration shows he was right after all. Nature really is magical and beautiful!

Happy reading!

Useful words and phrases this week:

Eine dicke Schneedecke - a blanket of snow

Baumstamm - tree trunk

Wie wäre es mit einere Schneeball schlact? - how about a snowball fight?

Schau mal nach oben - look up!

Eiszapfen - icicle

Prachtvoll war das - magnificent!

Zauberhaft - enchanting