There is a lot to like about this new edition of the classic story: the binding is handsome, the charming original illustrations are included, and the introduction by Maurice Sendak provides some historical perspective. The story itself is a terrific example (and perhaps the original) of the ever popular genre of children's literature in which kids, through their natural resourcefulness and wits, triumph over the bumbling adults.
However, I can't recommend this edition, for two reasons, both having to do with the text of the new translation. First, some of the proper names are "translated" into English, e.g., Emil Tischbein becomes Emil Tabletoe, the town of Neustadt becomes New Town, and so on, although most geographical locations and some characters' names remain in German. According to the translator, these lighthearted and absurdist names (Truegut, Groundsnow, Crumbagel) are true to the spirit of Kastner's original text. However, the effect -- particularly when mixed with proper German names -- is jarring. This misstep would have been forgivable, however, were it not for a worse problem: all of the children in the story speak in a jumble of late 20th/early 21st Century slang. The setting of the book, the illustrations, and the storyline all clearly belong to an earlier time, and the rest of the text is clean and straightforward, so having characters regularly spout lines like "Get outa here!", "You dork!", "Berlin parents are so cool!" is gratingly anachronistic. This may pose no problem for children who have grown up on modern animated films, where characters who are ostensibly Vikings may talk like California surfers, but for an adult reader with a sense of history it just doesn't work. The text doesn't benefit from this "modernization" any more than Little Women would be improved by having characters greet one another with "What's hanging, Dude?".