Bombs on Aunt Dainty: A classic and unforgettable children’s book from the author of The Tiger Who Came To Tea

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It is an autobiographical novel about a 9 year old girl and her family who become refugees and travel from Germany to various countries from 1933-1935. The big events were all true, though no doubt she polished and refined some of the minor events for shaping her fiction. See our Remarkables Archive for some that are no longer in print, but which we are happy to try to track down.

Knowing this was a true story of a family leaving Germany before Hitler took over the country made this story very interesting.I think that because Kerr is writing prom personal experience it makes the books a lot more relatable. Judith was awarded the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and in 2019 was named Illustrator of the Year at the British Book Awards. However, I enjoyed this book very much and I think my fellow book-club members have enjoyed this as well. This book absolutely fizzes - Anna's is so lively, intelligent, naïve, hungry to learn and eat up life - but it also dips into despair and a sense of the meaninglessness of life, the personal suffering which can overwhelm anyone at times, making the `in love with it all' feel like an unbearable sham.

To be poor, even desperate, in a cold, foggy country where the natives, though friendly, gargle some kind of Anglo-Saxon dialect. I read the whole book before then reading the final pages, where she explains that it is based on her life.This book is written beautifully and I would recommend any parent to let their child read this book. Papa can’t find much work as a journalist, as the Swiss want to remain neutral and not antagonize their neighbor to the north.

The next book in the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy is Bombs on Aunt Dainty (1975), which details Anna’s experience in London during WWII. The children hear that their father has sought refuge in Prague, Austria, along with Anna's older brother Max.Told from a child's perspective, it's a story of escaping from your home because of the Nazis, first to France and then to Switzerland, then finally England. Anna's father foresees that this new leader is not good for the country, so he decides to take his family and leave. She left Nazi Germany with her family in 1933 and fled across Europe, eventually settling in England. Letztlich hinterlassen die Jahre ihre tragischen Spuren, und das letzte Buch handelt (vielleicht etwas übermäßig viel) von der schweren depressiven Verstimmung der Mutter, die die schweren Jahre nicht mehr so einfach wegstecken kann. The chief point about these last, admittedly wretched years……is that it is infinitely better to be alive that dead.