James Krüss

James Krüss (31 May 1926 – 2 August 1997) was a German writer of children's and picture books, illustrator, poet, radio play author, scriptwriter, translator, and collector of children's poems and folk songs. For his contribution as a children's writer he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1968.

Krüss was a best known and prolific children's author in the Federal Republic of Germany. Inheriting a post-war literary desert, created by the Nazi Party's discouragement of creative writing for children in favour of a return to true Germanic folk poetry, Krüss was an important figure in the re-establishment of the freedom of imaginative story-telling. His first children's book, The Lighthouse on Lobster Island (1956), was based on his own experience of growing up in Heligoland, and was followed by My Great-Grandfather and I (1959), a continuation in the same genre.

The James Krüss Award for International Children's and Youth Literature was established in his memory. The following people have received awards: 2013 Joke van Leeuwen 2015 Frank Cottrell Boyce 2017 Andreas Steinhöfel 2019 Frida Nilsson