He was called the Little Man, and he slept in a matchbox. Although, of course, he had a completely ordinary human name: Max Pichelsteiner, or simply Maksik. No one would have known about him, and what’s more, no one would have seen him! - but chance brought him to Mr. Grozovetter’s circus and made him a partner of the great magician Jokus von Pokus. The joint performance turned Yokus and Maksik into real stars. However, this story soon took an unexpected and, one might say, detective turn. The book “The Matchbox Boy” (1963) has long become a classic in Germany. For half a century, more and more generations of children have been rereading it. It's all about her unique intonation and humor. And the plot is twisted in such a way that it seems that there was not a single boring day at that time: circus performers came up with more and more fantastic shows, newspapers proclaimed sensation after sensation, gangsters weaved sophisticated intrigues to the delight of brave detectives.

German author Erich Kästner (1899–1974) already at a young age gained popularity not only in his homeland, but throughout Europe. Few people managed to write in such a modern and timely manner, including for children, in the turbulent era of the 1920s. The sensitive writer could not help but criticize the current regime - so his books were among those destroyed by the Third Reich. Only after the war did Erich Kästner begin to be published again. In his works for children, he diligently avoids any edification, but at the same time he knows how to speak the same language with children. Perhaps that is why the writer was awarded the Gold Medal of the Hans Christian Andersen Prize in 1960. The long-awaited re-release of The Boy in the Matchbox is out! The book, in the classic translation by Konstantin Bogatyrev, with exquisite illustrations by Maria Kuznetsova, will be a wonderful gift for a young reader.