What did you learn at age 3? What about 45? 80? The simple pleasures and hard lessons of each age are beautifully presented as a journey of 100 years.
5- You learn that boys and girls fall in love. Incredible! 13- When will your parents learn? Not in front of your friends. 36- A dream came true, but it feels different than you thought.
45- Do you like yourself as you are? 75- You learn to unlearn things. Can you still do a somersault?
86- Everything can be different in every moment.
How does our perception of the world change in the course of a lifetime? When Heike Faller’s niece was born she began to wonder what we learn in life, and how we can talk about what we have learnt with those we love. And so she began to ask everyone she met, what did you learn in life? Out of the answers of children’s writers and refugees, teenagers and artists, mothers and friends, came 99 lessons- that those who have had a difficult time appreciate the good moments more. That those who have had it easy find it harder getting old. That a lot of getting old is about accepting boundaries. And of course, as one 94 year old said to her, ‘sometimes I feel like that little girl I once was, and I wonder if I have learned anything at all.’
A bestseller in Germany, Hundred is a book given by children to grandparents and the other way around, for christenings and Mother’s days, significant birthdays and times of celebration. With every age beautifully illustrated by Valerio Vidali, Hundred cannot simply be read because, like life itself, it must be experienced.
‘Now this is a truly wonderful book, about life, love, age, about all of us. I gave it to look at to a 7 year old who sat with her 75 year old grandmother, and both were intent, deeply engaged, the one full of questions, the other searching still for answers. A remarkable and important book!’ - Michael Morpurgo
