As noted by reviewer Andreas Berg, in retrospect one scene of Kästner's book becomes especially poignant and painful. For the Christmas of 1932 Martin makes for his parents a drawing entitled "Ten Years From Now", showing his moustached grown up self driving his parents in a carriage through a warm smiling Mediterranean landscape under orange trees. "As we know all too well, in the actual 1942 Martin would have probably been a soldier trapped in the freezing cold and harsh warfare of the Russian Eastern Front, with the parents huddling at home in fear of the Allied bombers" noted Berg.