5 h 22 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 22 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the world beneath your feet holds questions as vast as the sky?
In People of the Sky, Waldemar Bonsels brings you close to grass, petals and wings. Flowers and animals belong to a living community, where small lives carry large questions. Nature is more than a setting: it offers a way to explore meaning, kindness and faith.
The longing for light runs through this gentle fable. Light stands for hope, understanding and the divine, while simple encounters invite reflection on where life comes from and what gives it worth. The pleasure lies less in swift events than in wonder, quiet feeling and the chance to look closely.
What you’ll discover
- A world near the ground See ordinary nature from the level of grass, where petals and wings invite fresh wonder.
- Small lives, large questions Meet creatures whose concerns reach beyond their size to questions of life's source and worth.
- The search for light Follow an image that brings hope, understanding and spiritual longing into the same quiet frame.
- Kindness as a question Consider what it means to be kind through a fable's simple, searching view of life.
- Room to read slowly Linger over a gentle mood that leaves space to picture, wonder and reflect.
Who will love it
Readers who love talking animals, quiet woodland scenes, and songs about love and loss will feel at home here, as will anyone who enjoys a gentle fable with an open, warm storyteller.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A meadow where every creature speaks
- A flower elf steps into the daylight
- Quarrels, cats and the dying oak
- The hedgehog's fight and the blue flower
- A lark misjudged and a frog's sad brother
- Wisdom, happiness and Traule's story
- A beetle's complaints, a mother's night, a fox
- The Elf Queen's summons
- Joy, sorrow and the linden's two stories
Who’s who
- The flower elfA being of light who saw the sun on his first night, cannot go home, and longs for a love great enough to free him.
- Uku the owlThe old, wise and unloved owl of the linden who welcomes the elf, questions him by night and cares for the meadow.
- Hassan the hedgehogA grumpy, lonely hedgehog who wants a home and respect, and whose quick courage surprises everyone.
- Li the squirrelA proud, nimble squirrel who thinks he rules the meadow and learns he needs the creatures he mocks.
- Onna the wagtailA bobbing, opinionated bird who judges strangers quickly and is sometimes moved to change her mind.
- Reiner the foxA clever, beautiful hunter who expects to be hated and is surprised when the elf accepts him as he is.
- The old linden treeA thousand-year-old tree that shelters the meadow and tells the creatures stories about people.
- Assap the frogA careful young frog who grows up beside Owl Lake and loses his brother to a boy's net.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 5 h 22 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Le Peuple du ciel in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Le Peuple du ciel
by Waldemar Bonsels · 1915
A flower elf who has seen the sun cannot go home, so a forest meadow takes him in and he waits for love.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
People of the Sky is a nature fable by the German writer Waldemar Bonsels, best known for his bee tale Maya the Bee. It is set in a forest meadow beside a stream called the Traulenbach.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A meadow where every creature speaks
The book opens before sunrise at the forest meadow by the Traulenbach. Kuno the starling sits on the old linden, polishing his black and gold feathers, and he cannot stop talking. He mocks Onna the wagtail below him, brags about his early arrival and flies off toward the farms. Onna, annoyed for a moment, soon forgets her anger in the cool, sweet air of the spring morning.
The sun rises and the flowers wake. An older daisy that has lived through the winter greets the day with a little prayer, asking God to bless the flowers so that sun, dew and wind may find them. The narrator then steps in and speaks to the reader directly. For a plant that blooms for a single day, he says, a day is a whole life, and noon is its high point.
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What is People of the Sky about?
It tells of a flower elf who sees the sun on his first night and must live on earth among the animals and plants of a forest meadow. He waits for a great love to free him and learns about joy and death.
Who is the elf in People of the Sky?
He is a flower elf, a tiny winged being of light who normally lives only a few night hours. Because he saw the sunrise he cannot go home, and he settles in the meadow beneath the old linden tree.
Who tells the stories in the book?
The linden tree, a thousand years old, tells the meadow folk its stories of people, including the tale of Traule and the story of a man who teaches love. Its calm voice gives the book its depth.
The author
Waldemar Bonsels
1881–1952 · German novelist
Waldemar Bonsels was a German writer born in Ahrensburg in 1881. He wrote novels, stories, and travel books. His book Maya the Bee appeared in 1912. He lived in Munich and later in Ambach, beside Lake Starnberg in Bavaria. He died in Ambach in 1952.
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