Arno ja kumppanit (1912)

Most enjoyable Estonian children's book of 1912, set in a village school. The adventures focus on sensitive Arno, and his classmates, notably Toots with his endless escapades and Teele, a girl on whom Arno becomes increasingly fond... The kindly schoolmaster, the unpleasant churchwarden and the vodka-swilling sexton all come into the narrative, as do the pupils of a neighbouring school for the sons of German squires...
During the year that the story covers, we see the children grow up somewhat. Teenage melancholy, getting drunk and a moral dilemma are interspersed with some quite amusing episodes, courtesy of Toots: 'In Joosepp Toots there is a fierce battle going on between right and wrong. And, as is to be expected, wrong always comes out the winner.'
The characters were sufficiently strong that I really wanted to read the sequels that Luts wrote (sadly these don't seem to exist in English translation - indeed this novel was quite hard to come by in English). Lovely illustrations give it the finishing touch. ( )