Children race down the aisles in their socks, pantomiming their favorite sport, paper airplanes soar through the air: Sunday afternoons are full of spirits at the Radio FFH broadcasting center in Bad Vilbel.

The guest is children's book author Stefanie Taschinski.

As part of the FAZ Sunday Stories, she reads from her new book "The Brilliant Herr Kreideweiß".

But a pure reading does not last long.

The author from near Hamburg, known above all for her "The Little Lady" series, encourages the children to join in again and again.

She has brought along quiz questions for the chapters that she reads from the book.

She patiently answers the children's questions.

In "The Brilliant Mr. Kreideweiß" Stefanie Taschinski takes her young readers to Krötenfels Castle.

This is where the adventure of Lukas Kreideweiß, the new class 3d teacher at the Lilienthal School, begins.

And this Herr Kreideweiß suddenly has quite a few magic tricks up his sleeve, which he still has to get used to himself.

The fact that books are suddenly flying through the air or that children are even taking off in physical education class has something to do with the legendary inheritance of his great-uncle Ludwig L. Kreideweiß.

Something is wrong with the teacher

This uncle, of whom the young teacher knew nothing until now, once lived at Schloss Krötenfels himself.

Lukas Kreideweiß not only takes over a racing bike with the enigmatic name "Levitatus QX100", with which he can fly, but also the "wuulige Glücksschaf" Rüdiger, which is quite cheeky and always comes to life, as well as a giggling suitcase.

For some students in his class it quickly becomes clear that something cannot be right with the new teacher.

Finally, a few days before school started - accompanied by green, yellow and rainbow flashes - it landed very roughly in front of Matti, who is walking with her mother and her dog Zora.

At this point, Kreideweiß still knows nothing about the wonderful flying power of his new bike.

And he doesn't know much about the talking mini sheep either.

Rüdiger quickly becomes the mascot of the class, which a different child can take home every day.

Matti is the first to put the sheep in her backpack.

When she gets home, she starts to do her chores when she is suddenly approached by the sheep.

"Writing texts is probably not one of your strengths," says the animal - and Matti is flabbergasted.

But Rüdiger, who has already won several math competitions, as he proudly reveals, doesn't give the girl much time to marvel, after all the mini sheep is struggling with a terrible hunger.

It would prefer pineapple or mirabelle plums.

But on this day it is also satisfied with a wrinkled apple.

fire and flame

One thing is clear: If the strict headmistress Mrs. Rosien had known what a mess her new teacher would cause at the school, she would probably have put up a fight tooth and nail against Mr. Kreideweiß and his strange teaching methods.

But the headmistress prefers to deal with the flowers in the school beds anyway.

The children are definitely hooked on the story this afternoon.

Whenever the author asks a question, they raise their hands or demonstrate their pantomime skills.

Also, they have lots of questions.

One child wants to know when the author wrote her first children's book (twelve years ago), another asks how many pages her new book has (207).

Marie-Lisa Kehler, deputy department head of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, who will moderate the reading on Sunday afternoon, can sit back and relax.

After all, author Stefanie Taschinski has everything under control.

"A bicycle that can fly," admits Kehler, although she would also like to own one.

Maybe Herr Kreideweiß can get her one.