Item - Der fliegende Teppich

This short children's book, a German translation of The Flying Carpet, was a disappointing read. It consists of Arabian Nights clichés, presented as a dreamlike sequence. With the protagonist flying off on a carpet to Araby, some strands seem to end in mid-air....

The author never really managed to surprise me, except in one instance: Upon meeting a rider, his horse turns out to be not a real horse, but a mechanical one. I also found the pervading use of onomatopoetic words in comic book style awkward: "Knall! Schepper! Boing!"

The German edition features watercolour illustrations by Stefan Rogge, credited as Stefan Horstmeyer in earlier printings. The mechanical horse on p. 38 with its legs made of chain links is well thought-out, the rest more or less bland or even nonsensical like the guy cutting up the flying carpet on p. 25 who seems to hold his sabre the wrong way.

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