Nesthäkchen's First School Year

The book describes Anne Marie's school day in the German Empire. Her class has fifty pupils, taught by an attractive, sympathetic woman named Miss Hering. Anne Marie becomes friends with the neighbor's daughter, Margot Thielen, and two cousins, Marlene Ulrich and Ilse Hermann. Also Anne Marie is attracted to the naughty Hilde Rabe.

In class a hierarchy is introduced. The best students are in front, the bad ones sit in back. Anne Marie is a good student, but she does not remain long in first place. Not only her performance but also her behavior and orderliness are graded. She is soon surpassed by her friend Margot Thielen, who is less talented but a good child.

In the editions of the book prior to the 1980s, Anne Marie's mother explains to her daughter that orderliness and behavior are more important than good grades for a girl.[4] However, Anne Marie persists in her untidiness until she forgets one day to give her canary Mätzchen (Antics) fresh water. The bird dies, and Anne Marie realizes for the first time that sloppiness can have dire consequences. She gets a new bird for Christmas, whom she believes is her old bird born again. She becomes - at least until the end of the book - an orderly child and is permitted to give a children's party as a reward. Anne Marie learns the difficult art of knitting from her grandmother.

During the summer holidays she travels with her parents to Johannesbad (Janské Lázně) in the Riesengebirge (the venue of the holiday was not changed after 1945).

"A young family favorite charms her teacher in this affecting novel from a century ago. Readers should be transported not only to an earlier era’s childhood world, but to a glowingly idealized version of that realm, and they will likely be as enchanted by Annemarie as were Ury’s original readers." Kirkus Reviews [5]

"Oh, Oh, my work has a hole in it. Oh, Oh" Illustration by Franz Kuderna (1882–1943) from Nesthäkchens Erstes Schuljahr (1915).