Rattletrap, Tattle Crap. Children's Poems for all Senses

Many poems for children, no matter in which language they are written, are full of witty ideas, crazy rhymes, poetic capers, and creative word creations. They excude pure pleasure, arouse curiosity and imagination, and make you want to scout for the infinite possibilities of language, words, and sounds. And they invite you to be creative and invent rhymes yourself. 

The International Youth Library has been publishing the “Kinder Kalender” (Children's Calendar) for fifteen years. Every year, it features a selection of 53 poems in around 30 languages and from almost 40 countries that show the diversity of international poetry for children and the inexhaustible inventiveness of poets. Over the years, almost 800 poems have been published in the ‘Children's Calendar’, each in the original language and in German translation. For this exhibition, we have made a special selection from this abundance of texts. Tones, sounds, rhythm, and music play the main role in these rhymes and verses. The panoply ranges from sound poems to galloping tongue twisters and ear-catching word cascades to ‘snap-snorting’ nonsense.

The exhibition makes poems dance and pirouette. The rhymes and verses are staged in new and surprising ways using language, audio snippets, typography, sounds, and objects. This brings the poems to life and invites visitors to experience them, to hear, see, feel, and of course: to join in and create their own poems!

We offer workshops for school classes to accompany the exhibition.

With the friendly support of the Betzold company.

Current Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri  10 am - 4 pm
Saturday & Sunday 2 pm - 5 pm
Closed on public holidays

Entrance Fees:
Children and Teenagers under 18: free
Adults: 3 Euros (Collective ticket for all exhibitions and museums), 2 Euros (Concession tickets)