Jim Button

Jim Bouton is a book for children written by Michael Ende. It comprises two volumes:

the City of the dragons
Jim Button and Terrible the 13

Summary

The history begins on a called tiny island the Kingdom of the Dawn (original name: Lummerland), just enough large to accommodate a small palace, a station of train and rails all around the island, a Convenience store, a small house, a king, three subjects, and an engine called Emma.

One day, the factor - which must come by boat - brings a Colis with an almost illegible address, and quantifies it 13 written in fat on the back. After a short research of the recipient everywhere on the island, the population opens the package and finds with a its immense surprised Noir baby inside. The baby is adopted by the islanders and the latter give him the name of Jim Bouton (Jim Knopf).

But progressively of his growth, the king starts to worry because there will not remain any space on the island for Jim when he is large, and he announces in Lucas that Emma will have to be removed. Lucas, upset about this decision, decides to leave the island with its engine, but Jim (who had accidentally intended Lucas to entrust his pain to Emma) decides to come with them. Once Emma converted into a boat, they leave island one harms and sail to the coast of Mandala. When they arrive near Ping, the capital, they gain the friendship of a tiny child called Ping-Pong, and from him they learn that the Empereur is in mourning because his/her daughter, Li If, were removed and is retained in a city full with dragon S. Lucas and Jim offer their assistance, and while studying the circumstances of the disappearance of the princess Li If, they butt against several names which are directly connected on mysterious arrival of Jim to the Kingdom of the Dawn: Mrs. Grincedents (Frau Mahlzahn), Terrible 13 (die wilden 13), and the Kingdom of the Horror (Kummerland). Maintaining the two friends have more than one reason to go to the town of dragon (located in the Kingdom of the Horror) in order to confront itself with Mrs. Grincedents.

After a length and very dangerous voyage - where they are made two new friends: Mr. Tur Tur the giant (who is actually a “Scheinriese”, an illusory giant), and Nepomuk the half-dragon - they arrive in the city and release the princess Li If and a great number of children of dragon, who all had been removed by a troop of the pirates being called the Terrible 13 and had been sold to Mrs. Grincedents against rum, which she tortured “by playing” the school, because she wants to learn how to them to laugh (since the dragons laugh only seldom). They take along the dragon with them while they make the return voyage on the yellow river, whose source is in the city of the dragons.

By return to Mandala, where they make a triumphal entry, they are astonished by two alarming news: this Mrs. Grincedents transformed herself into gold Dragon of Wisdom, and for this reason the other inhabitants of the Kingdom of the Dawn wish that they return on the island! The last councils being given by Mrs. Grincedents and the generous assistance by the emperor, Lucas and Jim inherit the possession an island, which should solve the problem of the future residence of Jim, and after a good-bye on their native island, Jim and Li If fiancient themselves, and Jim takes a small engine, that it will call Molly.

Characters

Jim Button (Jim Knopf) : While being the hero, this character shares “glory” with his best friend Lucas, the locomotive engineer, while being his intelligent comrade. He grows on the Kingdom of the Dawn (Lummerland), raised by Mrs. Qu-be-EC-qu-it-known as. He wants to become locomotive engineer, him also, but he discovers later that its destiny is much larger. Its name is derived from its practice to tear a hole in its pants each time it does something of savage; after much of “cousages” that Mrs. Qu-be-EC-qu-it-known as had added the button so that it can simply be open instead of him tearing once again.

Lucas (Lukas) : The locomotive engineer with the Kingdom of the Dawn, is the best friend of Jim. Whereas Jim represents adventurous youth, he is the man of the experiment and the practical character who manages to solve any engineering problems almost. Its distinctive sign is its pipe, which he smokes in emotive situations.

Princesse Li If : the girl of the emperor mandalais, is rather entêtée, particularly when it is about discipline. She admires Jim for her courage and her intelligence, though (for the major part of the history) he refuses to learn the reading and the writing.

Emma and Molly : engines of the tank respectively of Lucas and Jim. Emma east depicts like completely sensitive, expressing her feelings with whistling and blowing, though it often does not include/understand completely why its owner, Lucas, feels this way.

Mrs. Qu-be-EC-qu-it-known as (Frau Waas) : the owner of a convenience store, it is the mother of the Kingdom of the Dawn and Jim. She loves Jim dearly, and consequently she worries about him constantly when it is outside on a Aventure. Its speciality is to make candies, in particular the ice cream and the cake of the Twelfth Night.

the King Alphonse Midday-Less-the-Quarter (DER Viertel-VOR-Zwöflte of König Alfons) : the King of the Kingdom of the Dawn, which is called after the travel of the clock to which it was supported and on what it shows on his subjects on vacation. It is well meaning but can become excessively nervous in period of effort.

Mr. Sleeves (Herr Ärmel) : the subject “without face” symbolic system with the Kingdom of the Dawn because it does not have any special trade; it is most of the time seen taking a dawdling carrying a Bowler hat and with an umbrella under its arm. It, however, very polished and is informed, and very appreciated by the inhabitants of the island.

Mr. Tur Tur : The illusory giant, is a soft and modest person, and tragically only because everyone is afraid of him when it seems to be a giant of the distance. He thus saw with an oasis in the desert “the end of the world” and is a Végétarien. He is very judicious.

Nepomuk : a half-dragon by birth (his/her mother was a Hippopotame), it supports resemblance at the side of his/her mother and is thus - as its half-dragons of comrade - nonallowed by the dragons thorough-bred in the Kingdom of the Horror. It always tries to behave like “a true” dragon: frightening.

Mrs. Grincedent (Frau Mahlzahn) : a dragon of thorough-bred and the Enemy E principal of the history, claimed by its simple hook projecting of its long muzzle. It is very well informed, but like all the tastes of dragons to torment few beings with its power; in its special case if she wants to learn how to laugh, she directs a school for the human children to the Kingdom of Horr.

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