The Flying Classroom

There are snowball fights, kidnappings, cakes, a parachute jump, a mysterious man who lives in a railway carriage, and a play about a flying classroom. As the Christmas holidays draw near, Martin is preparing for the end of term festivities along with his friend: nervous Uli, cynical Sebastian, poetic Johnny, and Matthias, who is always hungry (particularly after a meal). But surprises, sadness and trouble are on the way - and a secret that changes everything.

The Flying Classroom is a magical, thrilling and bittersweet story about friendship, fun and being brave even when you are scared. Part of the new Pushkin Children's Classics series of thrilling, magical and inspiring stories from around the world, which young readers will return to time and again. Translated by Anthea Bell.

Erich Kästner, writer, poet and journalist, was born in Dresden in 1899. His first children's book, Emil and the Detectives, was published in 1929 and has since sold millions of copies around the world and been translated into around 60 languages. After the Nazis took power in Germany, Kästner's books were burnt and he was excluded from the writers' guild.

He won many awards, including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1960. He died in 1974. Walter Trier was born in Prague in 1880.

After moving to Berlin, he became an acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator, and Kästner's collaborator on more than a dozen children's books. Forced to emigrate under Nazi rule, he died in 1951 in Ontario, Canada. Anthea Bell was born in Suffolk in 1936.