I Won't Go With Strangers

When Lu is waiting alone outside school to be picked up after almost all the other children are already gone, various adults -- all of whom she's met in some capacity before -- offer to take her home. But she refuses. She doesn't really know any of them, as she illustrates by asking herself questions about silly details of their lives. Finally, in a visual surprise to the reader, Lu agrees to go with a punk teenager -- her brother.

This story illustrates the principle of a child going home from school with no one other than whomever her parents have said she should go with, even adults she's met before. Ends with a prompt for parents and children to create a similar "safe" list.

Dagmar Geisler is a German author and illustrator. She studied graphic design at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden and worked for several publishing houses and broadcasting companies. Today, Dagmar focuses mainly on children's books, both as an illustrator and an author. She illustrated My Body Belongs to Me from My Head to My Toes which received the Silver Feather (Silberne Feder) Children's Book Prize from the German Medical Women's Association, and is the illustrator of My Feelings and Me. She lives with her family in Munich, Germany.