Mira Lobe

After school, Mira Lobe wanted to study art history and German language and literature, but because she was Jewish, Lobe was not allowed due to the growing antisemitism. Instead she attended a fashion school in Berlin, joined a Zionist youth group and studied Hebrew. In 1936, she emigrated to Mandate Palestine, where in 1940 she married the actor and director Friedrich Lobe. The couple had two children. Her first book, Insu-Pu, was published in 1948 in Tel Aviv. It tells the story of eleven children on their way to Terrania, where there is peace. They become stranded on a desert island where they manage to establish a perfectly working state. In 1951, she moved to Vienna with her husband. There she published books in first a communist and later a socialist publishing house. In Austria, she met and befriended illustrator Susi Weigel, whose illustrations are included in many of her works. In 1957, after the closure of the theatre Scala in Vienna, Friedrich was offered a position at Deutsches Theater and the family moved to East Berlin. The family returned to Vienna just a year later, where Lobe lived and worked until her death in 1995. She is buried in the Jewish section of Vienna Central Cemetery.

In all of Mira Lobe's books, peace, tolerance and social awareness are important topics. Many of her books were illustrated by Susi Weigel, while others include illustrations by Angelika Kaufmann, Winfried Opgenoorth and others.

Source: The Zoo Breaks Out (1958) City Boy, Country Boy (1961(Johnny and the Boople (1963) The Grandma in the Apple Tree (1970) Bimbulli (1972) Hoppelpop! (1977) What Horrible Creatures (1978) Hocus-Pocus (1979) Let Me Out! Said the Mouse (1980) Not What You Think (1980) Valerie and the Good-Night Swing (1982) Pig in a Muddle (1983) The Castle Ghost (1984) The Snowman Who Went for a Walk (1984) Ben and the Child of the Forest (1988) I Am Me (1989) Christoph Wants a Party (1995)