The Bell

by Martin Čepa (text), Richard Fischer (illustrations)

September 2024, 288 pages

Available material: English synopsis, Image sample

Children of the Present and Prague at the End of World War II

This exciting, adventurous story begins in an apartment building in Prague’s Vinohrady. A group of friends hears a strange whistling from somewhere above and sets off to find the source. In the attic, they discover scientific notes from a certain Dr. Schneider and, more importantly, the source of the whistling: a huge, black, bell-shaped stone. The bell has a crack large enough for a person to crawl inside, and that’s exactly what three of the kids do, leaving the fearful Eda outside. Inside, the three friends become unwilling participants in an unusual physical phenomenon. The bell transports them to April 1945, and they must find Dr. Schneider to return to their own time. It won’t be easy—the world war is still ongoing, and a maniacal Gestapo officer known as The Butcher is on their trail…