The Robber Hotzenplotz

The robber Hotzenplotz works hard at his job, waking early to hide behind the gorse bushes in the woods and wait for unsuspecting victims. One morning Kasperl’s grandmother is sitting in the sun outside her house, grinding coffee in her new musical coffee mill, a birthday gift invented by Kasperl and his best friend Seppel, when suddenly Hotzenplotz, hearing the music, surprises Grandmother and steals her mill. Sergeant Dimplemoser hears Grandmother’s cries and comes to her aid, but Hotzenplotz has evaded the useless police for years. So Kasperl and Seppel vow to catch the robber themselves. But catching robbers is not as easy as all that. . .Kasperl and Seppel soon discover that even the best-laid plans can be foiled, especially when Hotzenplotz enlists the help of his wicked magician friend, Petrosilius Zackleman, a gluttonous villain with a weakness for fried potatoes.

A merry tale of two scoundrels, two friends, a frog-fairy, and one unforgettable escapade, enlivened further by F. J. Tripp’s witty pen-and-ink drawings.

Otfried Preussler (1923–2013) was born into a family of teachers in Reichenberg, Czechoslovakia, and as a boy loved listening to the folktales of the region, including the old Sorbian tale of the sorcerer’s apprentice, upon whichKrabat & the Sorcerer’s Mill, published by the New York Review Children’s Collection, is based. Drafted into the army during World War II, Preussler was captured in 1944 and spent the next five years as a prisoner of war in the Tatar Republic. After his release, he moved to Bavaria and became a primary-school teacher and principal, supplementing his income by working as a reporter for a local newspaper and by writing scripts for children’s radio. One of the most popular authors for children in Germany, Preussler was twice awarded the German Children’s Book Prize. His many books have been translated into fifty-five languages and have sold more than fifty million copies. In addition toThe Robber Hotzenplotz, The New York Review Children’s Collection publishes Preussler’sThe Little Witch and The Little Water Sprite.

Anthea Bell is the recipient of the 2009 Schlegel-Tieck Prize for her translation of Stefan Zweig’sBurning Secret. In 2002 she won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize for her translation of W. G. Sebald’sAusterlitz.

F. J. Tripp (1915–1978) was a German illustrator of children’s books.