Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär

What a whirlwind! The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear are exciting, sad, whimsical, clever, and intriguing. I loved the characters - the madness - and the wisdom of this story. The stories build on each other, and it all starts to make a little sense near the end, maybe. While the cover and whimsy scream: little kids book!!! this is definitely a story for the youth in all of us. There are some very long words and complex sentences (at least in the English translation) that may be hard for young children to follow. Frankly, I think children will get bored with this book because many of the jokes require basic understanding of physics and biology.
Captain Bluebear gives us a fairly reliable narration of his autobiography - we get to see and experience his lives with him. Some are much longer than others. My favorites are the third and the half.

This could be read as a collection of stories, probably the best way to approach it if you are reading with children or just don't have time to commit to such a long work of fiction. NOTE: Some of the lists and intrusions from the encyclopedia get tedious - I think skipping them won't hurt anything.