In Australia, children have been reading the tachi before bed for decades

DrTashi’s great stories An all-encompassing compilation of four stories about Tim and his friend Tashi, who fearlessly immerse themselves in fairy tales of adventure. And in fact, you’re already hooked on the cheerful and clever Tashi from the front page.

In Australia, they’ve been reading Tashi’s stories for 25 years. Anna Feinberg and her mother, Barbara Feinberg, were raised together. Actually exactly as written. Anne remembered how her mother used to be a wonderful storyteller, and over countless cups of tea they came up with the character of Tashi, a wonderful storyteller.

on the back of a swan

Kim Gamble Tashi gave the appearance of a puck in the illustrations. Thus he put magic into the character Feinberg initially portrayed as a boy. Gamble, who passed away in 2016, was a self-taught person. He became one of Australia’s most beloved illustrators, having drawn over 70 books. He often used watercolor or chalk for his color drawings of Tashi, but delicate pencil drawings by hand were chosen for this Dutch collector. Start with an attractive map in the foreground. Pencil drawings, like the one in which Tashi is not visible, are very masterfully put together. But it looks like the giants, too, are about to break out of the pages.

Some elements in Tashi’s stories are reminiscent of other children’s books. Classics. Tashi enters Australia on the back of a swan. Nils Holgson’s thought of a white goose comes to mind. Tashi has magical boots – and who wouldn’t think of my turn in the Land of Oz?

What makes these stories accessible to young readers is that they are then told – by Tim to his parents, or by Tashi to Tim. It all ends well when we read it and if the story threatens to get too exciting, the story simply stops for a while. It also happens when Tashi tells Tim about his adventure with giants: “Now I saw a room with stone tiles and in the middle was a huge cage. And in that cage was another giant.” “Ooooo!” Tim said. “Two giants! Don’t you want to run away right away? “No,” said Tashi. “Not me. Look, it went like this: the giant in the cage was eating pasta. It was not possible to see it. She had four yellow teeth like sandstone, and the gaps between them were as big as caves.”

It is narrative, almost nonfiction and descriptive, but above all, this cleverly chosen format ensures that young children who nevertheless want to read adventures do not go to bed afraid.

write the formula

The first book was published in 1995 (included as the first story in Tashi’s great storiesUntil 2009 Tashi’s book was published every year in Australia. Sometimes even two. Over a million of them have already been sold. Daan Remmerts de Vries provided a smooth, easy-to-read translation.

The routine that comes with years of writing about the same character and target group can sometimes be read in stories. The sentence “Look, it went like this…” appears in every story. So it somewhat tastes like writing the formula. Fortunately, Tashi’s formula consists of strong adventures, so that despondency does not prevail. Dragons are killed, tigers guard the gold, ogres take the bottle out and conjure troublesome relatives. However, you experience all of this as comforting bedtime stories.