La ŝalmisto de Hamelin

AIMS International Books apparently publishes books for children in various languages. This time they've actually added an Esperanto book to their list -- the ninth incarnation, under their imprint, of the old legend of the Pied Piper.

We all know the story, of course -- the piper comes to town, drives out the rats, is refused his pay by the mayor when it comes time to pay the piper, and leads the town's children away into oblivion. Here, of course, the townspeople are in general more honest than their elected politicians, and take up a collection to pay the piper and get the children back -- and impose an immediate term limitation on their crooked mayor, who ends up out in the woods with the rats (who, in the final illustration, look considerably happier than he does).

The language of the translation (who is David Crowell, by the way?) is simple and irreproachable; the illustrations, in four colors (white, black, dark green and light green), are a lot of fun. And the town even pays up in old-time Esperanto currency (the speso). Let us hope that AIMS will sell enough of these to convince them to add other Esperanto translations to their list the Three Bears and Red Riding Hood are also available, but not yet in Esperanto.

If you have a child learning Esperanto, get it for him / her. But you'll probably read it first.