Helme Heine was a best-selling German writer, children's book author, illustrator and designer. He lived in New Zealand, writing screenplays, audiobook scripts and creating satirical drawings and sculptures.
I must be missing something. Sort of The Adventures of Baron Münchausen I guess. But the theme seems to be that drudgery is ok, so long as you can hear or tell stories. I think children will learn that lesson soon enough... I'd rather give them hope that they can actually *change* the cause of the drudgery.
BEAUTIFUL illustrations. but some are a little more intense than a kid should probably be seeing. Same with some of the writing (eg. mentions of a princess duck being taken for "slavery, or worse", cannibals, pirates)