Background

Jutta Langreuter was born on August 2, 1944, in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was the daughter of Rolf and Lieselotte (a homemaker). Her father was a diplomat and this gave her a chance to travel around the world early on in life. She spent her early childhood at Carolath Castle in northern Germany and went to school first in Hamburg and then for three years in Brussels.

Education

Jutta Langreuter studied at Munich University and earned her diploma in psychology.

Career

Jutta Langreuter worked as a psychologist for Max-Planck Institute and Deutsches Jugend Institute, both institutes for science, she also worked as a therapist. She is the owner of Munich Children’s bookshop.

She is the creator of the “Little Bear” series of books for children. Initially written in German, the books have been translated into English to cater to a wider audience.

Explaining her decision to write for young readers, Langreuter once commented that her adult life has always been spent with children: "I worked in an institute doing research on children, I led youth-forums, I own a children's bookshop in Munich, and (the most important thing) I raised two children, Jonas and Jeremy! Now they are older, but I still have their behaviors, their sweet sentences, their views of life … carved in my heart. I remember a lot, and these amusing and lovable things I write in my books."

In the "Little Bear" series Langreuter created a character with whom toddlers can easily identify, according to critics. Each book in the series deals with a different trial or tribulation in the life of a young preschooler. The young bear behaves with the typical stubbornness, imagination, and logic that is peculiar to a human his age. The "typical toddler rites of passage" noted a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, are dealt with humor and affection. A reviewer for the Children's Book Review Service noted that while approaching predicaments from the child's point of view, Langreuter's books "make you realize how difficult the maturing process can be."

The first book in the series, Little Bear Brushes His Teeth, deals with the universal problem of teaching a child the habit of brushing his teeth. When Mama Bear's best efforts and Papa Bear's strict commands fail, Mama comes up with an ingenious way of making her toddler understand the importance of brushing one's teeth: she uses Little Bear's fondness for "pretending" to enlist her son as a "soldier" in the "battle" against bacteria who are the "enemy." Hazel Rochman commented in Booklist: "Toddlers will enjoy all the messy and loving particulars of [the bears'] daily world."

The second book in the series, Little Bear Goes to Kindergarten, deals with the issue of separation anxiety faced by a small child going to school for the first time. The book opens with Mother Bear preparing Little Bear for school by recalling a previous preparatory visit to the school. The motif of remembering is reinforced throughout the book as the events unfold. In her review of the book for School Library Journal, Judith Constantinides noted that "The text is just right - succinct and with the oft-repeated phrase, ‘I remember’ to give it unity."

Little Bear and the Big Fight examines in detail the confused emotions of the preschooler when he has his first fight with his best friend in school. The account captures the preschooler's intense feelings and fears and how he learns to deal with them. Writing in Booklist, Rochman observed that children will particularly empathize with this story and "recognize how quickly friends can become enemies and how it hurts." School Library Journal contributor Christine A. Moesch suggested, however, that "More emphasis seems to be placed on how bad it feels to be angry at someone, rather than … that beating someone up isn't necessarily the first course of action." Little Bear Is a Big Brother explores Little Bear's changing emotions at the prospect of a new sibling - at first, he is excited and then apprehensive when friends at school warn him of the impending problems the new baby will bring.

Achievements

• Jutta Langreuter is known as the author of outstanding child books, such as the “Little Bear” series and others. Her books are highly appreciated by critics and loved by young readers.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Little Bear Won'T Go To Bed

    (When Little Bear has a hard time going to sleep, his pare...)

    2000
  • Little Bear And The Big Fight

    (When his best friend Brandon will not share the clay at s...)

    1998
  • Little Bear Is A Big Brother

    (Little Bear is excited about the new baby his family is e...)

    1998
  • Ltle Bear Goes To Kindergarten

    (Little Bear likes the teacher, other children, and activi...)

    1997
  • There's No One I Love Like You

    (Brayden Bunny doesn’t feel like picking up his toys or wa...)

    2018
  • Frida, die kleine Waldhexe: Plätzchenzauber, Kuchenstück - Zusammensein ist Weihnachtsglück 2019
  • Drunterdruber Kreuz Und Quer Gut Aufzupa 2011
  • Käpt n Sharky und das Seeungeheuer
  • Little Bear Brushes His Teeth 1997
  • Frida, die kleine Waldhexe 2016
  • Kapt'n Sharky und das Geheimnis der Schatzinsel 2006
  • Belly Buttons 1999
  • Ostern mit Hops und Moppel 2011
  • Drei Engel und die erste Weihnacht
  • Ein Brief vom kleinen Schutzengel

Personality

“Very important for me has been that in my childhood I moved a lot to other countries, because my father was a diplomat,” Langreuter once explained. “Since then I had this strong feeling of being a World-inhabitant.”

Connections

Jutta Langreuter married an editor Friedrich Langreuter on May 11, 1981. The couple has two children: Jonas and Jeremy.

Father:

Rolf

Mother:

Lieselotte

Spouse:

Friedrich Langreuter

Son:

Jonas Langreuter

Son:

Jeremy Langreuter

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 194
  2010