Fern (right) and her mother Edith

More than fifty years after their last meeting, childhood friends Mina
Lautenschlager and Edith Westerfeld were reunited at Mina's home in 1990.

As a child, Edith considered the storks that roosted in the bell tower of the Town Hall her pets. The Germans called the birds dirty and chased them away.

For 50 years, the birds did not return. But in 1999, the storks came back to Stockstadt, building this nest in the nature preserve.

The cover of the U.S. edition

The cover of the German edition

The cover of the Dutch edition