Molnár, Ferenc "The Paul Street Boys"

Molnár, Ferenc "The Paul Street Boys" (Hungarian: A Pál-utcai Fiúk) - 1907

This story takes place in Budapest at the end of the 19th century when Hungary and Austria still belonged together. A group of boys plays in a storage area between tall buildings and regards that as their home country. They even have their own flag, in red, green and red, the colours of Hungary. Another group with a red flag representing the rebels wants to take over the space and declare war.

We have all the typical characters as in a real war, we have the two groups who want the same thing but don't want to share, we have the traitor who thinks it's better to belong to the other group, we have the hero (who isn't always the strongest or the one people expect to be the hero) who saves the day, no matter what it will cost him.

It's amazing how much is always the same in any war. And the reason is usually materialistic. One group wants something the other has. Nothing new there. But the idea to let children copy the "great warriors" is fascinating. I mean, kids do copy adults. And I remember my brothers playing Cowboys and Indians when they were little, probably a similar game to the "war" the Paul Street Boys played.

And like all wars, everyone loses, even the "winners". And I think this book shows that even better than all the numbers we get about "real" wars. It should have us think more about patriotism and what it can do to people.

This book is so well-known in Hungary, they even have a sculpture in Budapest (see here on Wikipedia) depicting the Paul Street Boys playing marbles. And they made several movies of the book.

Comments from other readers:
"I must say, this book was such a positive reading experience. A book I had never heard about before it got chosen for reading and I wondered what possibly a little boys book could offer me for though. But it absolutely surprised me positively how engaging the story was, and amazing to think it was written well over 100 years ago. A real little heroes story with a very thoughtful ending."

We read this in our international online book club in September 2021.

From the back cover:

"The war between two groups of Hungarian boys living in Budapest. One with Hungarian national colours (red, white, green) is defending the square from redshirts (from Garibaldi's redshirts), who want to occupy the square."

Similar stories are the French novel "La Guerre des Boutons" (War of the Buttons) by Louis Pergaud (1912) and the German book "The Flying Classroom" (Das fliegende Klassenzimmer) by Erich Kästner (1933).