Books
Tomi’s Books give a wonderful insight into his creative genius, never resting on his laurels he is always pushing boundaries, challenging us and exploring humanity. His sharp wit and satirical tone is compelling engaging and sometimes uncomfortable…
Harper and Row published Tomi’s first children’s book in 1957, “The Mellops Go Flying”, which was an immediate and award winning success. Since then, Tomi has published over 30 Children’s books including classics such as “The Three Robbers”, “Moonman” and “Crictor”. In 1998, he was awarded the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Prize for children’s literature.
The bulk of his work has been published since 1958 by Diogenes Verlag in Zurich.
Tomi has also published many other genres of books making his work difficult to pigeonhole or categorize. His published work charts a diverse path; from books documenting different chapters in his life such as “A Childhood Under the Nazis” to books of social satire such as “The Party” and books expressing his views on animal welfare such as “Amnesty Animal”.
While Tomi’s books have continued to be published in many languages, his work fell out of favour in the English language speaking world until recently. In 2008, Phaidon started to re-issue Tomi’s books, starting with his back catalogue of children’s books, determined to bring “the most famous children’s book author you have never heard of” back into the limelight!
Otto
Otto – The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear published in English for the first time by Phaidon. This childrens classsic is a powerful and beautiful book told first-hand by Otto, a German-born teddy bear who is separated from his Jewish owner, lives through World War II, and is reunited with his original owner 50 years [...]
Moon Man
Moon Man is a beautiful and timeless childrens classic. A gentle satire that tells of the adventures of the Moon Man, who leaves his “shimmering seat in space,” catches the “fiery tail” of a passing comet, and lands on earth to sample the activities that he has longingly observed from above… Moon man has been [...]
The Three Robbers
The Three Robbers tells the story of three fierce black-clad robbers who terrorize and plunder the countryside, armed with a blunderbuss, a pepper blower, and a huge red axe… The Three Robbers has been translated into sixteen languages and has sold millions of copies in the 45 years since it was first published. The book [...]
