"Kinderland" by Mawil is a heartfelt and nostalgic graphic novel that beautifully captures the essence of childhood in East Berlin during the late 1980s. Through his evocative illustrations and poignant storytelling, Mawil transports readers to a time of innocence, adventure, and the bittersweet complexities of growing up under a socialist regime.

The story centers around Mirco, a shy and sensitive boy navigating the trials and tribulations of school life, friendships, and family dynamics. Mawil’s artwork is detailed and expressive, effectively conveying the emotions and experiences of the characters. The use of black-and-white illustrations adds a layer of authenticity and nostalgia, immersing readers in the historical setting.

Mawil excels in portraying the small yet significant moments of childhood—playing table tennis, dealing with bullies, and forging bonds with classmates. These everyday experiences are depicted with warmth and humor, making the characters’ journeys relatable and engaging. The graphic novel also subtly addresses the political and social backdrop of East Germany, providing context without overshadowing the personal stories.

"Kinderland" is more than just a coming-of-age tale; it’s a window into a specific time and place, offering insights into the lives of children growing up in a divided country. Mawil’s ability to balance lightheartedness with deeper themes of resilience, friendship, and the desire for freedom makes this graphic novel a compelling and touching read.

Overall, "Kinderland" is a must-read for fans of graphic novels and historical fiction. Mawil’s masterful combination of evocative art and heartfelt storytelling creates a poignant and memorable narrative that resonates long after the final page. This graphic novel is a testament to the enduring power of childhood memories and the universal quest for identity and belonging.

A great portrayal of the experiences of children in East Germany. I really enjoyed the style although it is a little different from the graphic novels I usually read.

(3,8 of 5 for a nice look into mundane life in the dusk of the one-party-rule in East Berlin)
The art - I liked it, a bit "children's comics" style, but it works well and the author knows how to work with the comics medium.
The story - I had little problem getting into it and it took me half the book, but alright, that end has a very nice atmosphere and it is excellently done.
One part which I like is the "outsider hero" main character. Even if he has all that outsider flaws, he also has some perks and it lacks that "so outsider - so hero" American pathos we usually get in these scenarios. This feels more real, more relatable, than absolute teenage dirtbag with no friends, overly-heavily-bullied and totally ostracised. The one who in the worst cases suddenly turns the tide and becomes all number one. Yeah, that's a pile of bullshit.

This comic is highly relatable to all who at least were born in that time, it brings a bit of nostalgia for times which have some silver lining but we would never want it back.

How can you end a book like that! Seriously. At first this book was a little slow. The reader follows Micro who is not very popular, small, and shy. The year is 1989. You don’t really know that until the end. This is just a “normal” look at a boy in East Germany before the wall falls. There are many pages with few or no words but the illustrator does a great job telling you what is going on. Micro does make a friend, but the friend has a few problems. He pretends to be tough when really he is just scared. I was amazed at how popular Ping Pong was. I didn’t realize so much was missing in East Germany until they get to cross over to the west, and see the difference in the two communities. In the end I really liked this book (except for that ending). I wanted more, and wanted to see what happened to the friendship. The ending was just so abrupt and out there. And, I learned more from the info bits at the end that explain things in the graphic novel the reader may not know about then I did in my years of schooling.
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The story of a group of kids at an East Berlin school in the year before the wall came down. Most of this was about the kids' obsession with ping-pong surprisingly. I wish the story had done more to explain the things that were unique about going to school in East Germany instead of just mentioning them commonplace as if the reader would have an understanding of what was being referred to. The art is absolutely terrible.

So much for the subtitle. This was a load of badly drawn rubbish about school bullying, and hardly a mention of anything Berlin based ever got to feature. Yes, the handheld computer games and lessons involved Russian, but that's your lot. A real squandering of an opportunity.

This book was intense. From the ping pong games, to the West being opened, to that ending, I want more.

The artwork is not my favorite style, but I did enjoy it, and it worked really well when doing action scenes. You were able to really feel the desolation that was part of the East during this time. I've heard much about it, but it really shows you the difference between what's talked about and what people actually experienced. I really enjoyed the glossary at the end which provided more information about what people went through.

I really want more, that cliffhanger of an ending just makes me sad.

This is a fascinating story about a young boy growing up in East Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall. The story portrays everyday life in East Germany and everyday life in high school and shows how neither are easy experiences.

Mirco Watzke is a model student but also a target for bullies. He finds an ally and a new friend in the new boy at school. The new boy is a bit of a mystery because he isn't in the Young Pioneers or the Free German Youth, both of which were groups for young people that existed in communist Germany.

The story focuses on the every day ups and downs of high school life. Mirco has friends and is fond of playing ping-pong but we get to see how the school equipment and other other modern consumer goods such as records and sports equipment and sometimes food, are limited in East Germany. Life is actually quite hard and in this graphic novel we see this through the eyes of the children. The story indirectly portrays the way that people flee East Germany. The children don't always understand why their friends stop coming to school only to discover that they have fled to the West with their parents. The mysterious new boy has possessions that other children don't have because his father sends them to him from the West and so on.

In the midst of all of these stresses and strains of life in East Germany, Mirco goes to school, gets good grades and stays out of trouble. He even goes to church but keeps that part of his life quiet because church is viewed with suspicion by the state. Mirco is also a normal boy with the usual conflicts with his sister and parents, especially when he gets into trouble with the new boy.

The story is a birds-eye view of Eastern Germany before the wall falls, as seen through the eyes of children. The difficulties of living in communist Germany are explained through the eyes of children and since it is nuanced in this way it and can be missed. The artist of this book provides a detailed glossary at the end of the book and explains some of those nuances.

All in all it's a very interesting comic and I enjoyed reading it because at the heart of the story is a very engaging tale about camaraderie and family.

My only complaint about this graphic novel is that it ended on a real cliffhanger and that's very annoying because it leaves the story incomplete (for me at least), other than that it is a good graphic novel, suitable for both adults and children.

Copy provided by Europe comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a neat little slice of life about being a kid while being surrounded by history in the making. I like how the plot focuses on those everyday things a kid might have to worry about in school, like bullying or bad grades, while also having the historical element as a sort of an ambience that infuses the setting with an additional kind of anxiety. I was a little iffy on the art style at first, but it won me over by the end of the book.

School Daze Tale With an East German Background

This is mostly a fairly standard school daze comedy/drama, with bullies, some family tension, teacher and report card problems, friendship and loyalty issues, and the other sorts of seventh grade topics you encounter in such books. Mirco is a reasonably engaging hero, and there are some nice set pieces and humorous incidents, all in a setting that feels reasonably authentic.

There is a lot of ping pong, but you get a lot of sports in school books, (baseball in America, football in France, rugby and cricket in the Commonwealth),and the central role of ping pong in East German school sports was an interesting surprise. And that's really where the fun is here - all of the realistic East German background. The actual fall of the Berlin Wall happens at the end of the book and comes up out of nowhere, but before you get to that you get a real sense of daily life - the dynamic behind the Young Pioneers youth movement, collecting recyclables for spare change, hoping for packages from the west, going on family outings, trading black market western cultural items like music albums, waiting in lines for scarce goods. All of that is blended seamlessly into Mirco's story and gives one a bit of an East German, (circa 1989), taste of culture and society. (There is an especially informative glossary at the end of the book that further describes some aspects of life and explains some slang and shorthand terms, and that was both entertaining and educational.)

So, the characters develop over time and increasingly engage our interest. The plot, as such, isn't especially gripping. The drawing complements the storytelling without getting in the way. The setting is novel and, from the current vantage point, Euro-exotic. This struck me as an interesting and sneakily accomplished find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Recent non-fiction books that I have read have touched on the Soviet Union and the separation of East and West Germany, something that I know very little about, so I thought that a graphic novel about the period leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall would be a good way into the topic. However, I found this graphic novel to be quite confused.

The glossary of what everything meant was at the end of the book so a lot of the acronyms and references went over my head. Also, apart from ping pong, I couldn't figure out what the book was trying to focus on. There was very little actual talk of the Berlin Wall or the separation and I found that the characters were confusing as many looked quite similar.

The illustration style was fun and dynamic but I feel that it didn't necessarily lend itself well to the story.

Overall I would not recommend this and will be seeking other mediums to learn about this topic. Unfortunately I found that the story wasn't really what was described in the subtitle and was a little misleading.

2 out of 5 stars!

This graphic novel, set in East Berlin just before the fall of the wall, is not about the wall at all. When the title says this is a story of what it is to be a child in East Berlin, that is really what it is about. The wall is almost an afterthought, so it is a bit misleading to have it on the cover.

It is really about Micro, who falls in with, if not a bad crowd, at least not a model student, and he is picked on, and beaten because of it.

Through it all, there is ping pong, and a LOT of the book is about the ping pong games the children play, ad nasium.

There is a great glossary in the back, the explains some of what is going on, such as the Pioneers (the political youth group) recycling for money, and the lack of Western goods.

So, just because it isn't quite what we were hoping for a story, because it is a completely different story than you are lead to believe, and because there is only so much ping pong anyone can take, I can't rate it much higher than I have.

Other than that, it is a good look into what was on young people's minds in 1989, when the wall came down.

<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/kinderland.png" alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5491" />

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.