'Matches, buy my matches, ladies and gents!' calls Luise Pogge, a.k.a. 'Dot', evening after evening, standing on Weidendammer Bridge in the middle of Berlin. Of course, her wealthy parents have no idea of her whereabouts, believing her to be in the safe care of her nanny, Miss Andacht. But Miss Andacht is being blackmailed by her shady fiancé, which is where Dot comes in. Anton, on the other hand, has to beg because he and his mother are paupers, and desperate. When the two children make friends on the streets of Berlin, Dot, who is no fool, has a brilliant idea which is sure to solve both their problems, and in the process they even solve a dastardly crime...

Vorwort
The funny, heart-warming story of two young comrades-in-arms, by the author of Emil and the Detectives

Autorentext

Erich Kästner was born in Dresden in 1899. He began his career as a journalist for the New Leipzig newspaper in 1922, but moved to Berlin in 1927 to begin working as a freelance journalist and theatre critic. In 1929 he published his first book for children, Emil and the Detectives, which has since been translated into 60 languages, achieving international recognition and selling millions of copies around the world. He subsequently published both Dot and Anton and The Flying Classroom, before turning to adult fiction with his 1931 satire Going to the Dogs. After the Nazis took power in Germany, Kästner's books were burnt on Berlin's Opera Square and over the period of 1937-42 he faced repeated arrest and interrogation by the Gestapo, resulting in his blacklisting and exclusion from the writers' guild. After the end of World War II, Kästner moved to Munich and published The Parent Trap, later adapted into a hit film by Walt Disney. In 1957 he received the Georg Büchner Prize and, later, the Order of Merit and the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contribution to children's literature. Kästner died in Munich in 1974.

Walter Trier was born in Prague in 1890, but moved to Berlin in 1910. An acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator, he collaborated with Kästner on more than a dozen children's books and produced covers for Lilliput and The New Yorker, among others. He fled Germany in 1936, and eventually settled in Canada, where he died in 1951.

Klappentext
"Gadzooks!' said Dot ... 'The things that boy can do!'"

Dot loves play-acting, dressing up her pet dachshund Piefke and making up words like 'splentastic'. Her best friend is Anton, who lives in a little apartment and looks after his mother.

They share a secret - every night, when their parents think they are asleep, they sell matches and shoelaces on the streets of Berlin with Dot's grumpy governess. But why?

The answers involve a villain called 'Robert the Devil', a club-wielding maid, a wobbly tooth, a pair of silver shoes and a policeman dancing the tango, as Dot and Anton get into all sorts of scrapes and even solve a crime in this delightful, touching and hilarious adventure story.

Zusammenfassung
The funny, heart-warming story of two young comrades-in-arms, by the author of Emil and the Detectives