Suggests that authentic illustrated children's books are ideal vehicles for German as a foreign language students not only for language acquisition and grammar practice but also for studying aspects of "landeskunde." Describes how picture books can be used in the German classroom for studying social and cultural issues. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the use of young adult books in teaching high school and college-level German, particularly "Damals war es Friedrich" and "Brandstiftung." The didactic intentions of these books are to inform younger adults about the Nazi periods of the past and the Neo-nazi resurgence of the present, encourage them to confront the issues, and to take a…

Makes a plea for reading authentic "Jugendliteratur" in the foreign-language classroom. Focuses on the reasons for inclusions of this literature, discusses some of the reasons for its omission, and offers solutions to the problems perceived. Strategies for reading whole texts are shared and applied to the reading of "Oya" by Karin Konig, Hanne…