German Short Stories

Wolfi is a wolf who wants to be kind, but every fairy-tale character runs from him. When the seven little goats’ roof collapses under snow, he spends the night fixing it. The goats thank him, and the tale of the kind wolf spreads through the forest.

Bip, a street-sweeping robot in a concrete city, discovers a yellow flower between paving stones and waters it. Fascinated by the flower and a visiting bee, he plants seeds every night until an empty lot becomes a garden for the whole neighborhood.

Mia waits up for the Tooth Fairy and finds her under the bed with a cold and a heavy sack of teeth. Mia lends her a toy truck and a scarf, and in the morning finds a shiny coin and a thank-you note.

For his birthday, Ben takes a hot-air balloon ride with his grandfather over tiny houses, toy-like cows and the mountains. An eagle flies beside them and Grandpa shares his childhood dream of flying. They land in a flower meadow at sunset.

Gigi is the tallest giraffe in the savanna but is secretly afraid of heights. When a baby elephant gets lost in the tall grass, she takes a deep breath, looks far into the distance and spots him by the lake — discovering her courage.

Anna collects smiles by doing small kind things and writing them in a notebook. When her cat goes missing, all the people she helped come with posters to search, and they find the cat asleep on a garage roof. Anna writes that she got all her smiles back.

Hinnerk, an old North Sea lighthouse, keeps shining every night even though few ships pass and the seagulls tease him. One foggy night his light guides a lost father and daughter safely to harbor.

At the beach, Mila and Tim compete to build the best sandcastle side by side. A big wave washes away half of each, so Tim suggests building one together further from the water. Theirs becomes the biggest castle on the beach, and they become friends.

Keks, a little white dog, hates water. At a lakeside picnic, little Lina’s favorite ball drifts away and she can’t swim. Keks bravely jumps in, discovers he can swim, rescues the ball, and now loves swimming.

After thousands of years of lighting the night, the tired Moon wishes for a vacation. The stars offer to cover the sky and shine so brightly that children see the constellations like never before. Now the Moon rests once a month — the new moon.