In between are tales of comeuppance for characters committing surprisingly graphic animal cruelty ("Cruel Frederick"), racist harassment ("The Story of the Inky Boys" is definitely not woke by 2019 standards, but was considered progressive at the time), and the apparent dastardly sin of not watching where you're going ("The Story of Johnny Head-in-Air"). To give you some idea of the savagery of the 10 stories in the 1845 collection, consider "The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches," about a little girl who accidentally sets herself on fire and burns to death while her pet cats watch. Then there's "The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb," about a boy named Conrad who refuses to stop sucking his thumbs and subsequently watches them both severed by a creepy, long-legged home-invader. 'The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches.' Today, the astonishing content of Der Struwwelpeter hasn't only irreversibly impacted children's literature-its influence can still be seen in movies, cartoons, TV shows, and a wealth of parodies. The tales of Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman are short, sharp, shocking, and they've left a surprisingly deep mark on culture, even though most living Americans have never read them. It's a collection of children's stories so brutal, it almost outdoes the Brothers Grimm.
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