the nesthäkchen books represent a german literary genre, the "", a girls' novel that describes maturation and was intended for readers 12 - 16 years old. a backfisch (“teenage girl”, literally “fish for frying”) is a young girl between fourteen and seventeen years of age. the "backfischroman" was in fashion between 1850 and 1950. it dealt overwhelmingly with stereotypes, traditional social images of growing girls absorbing societal norms. the stories ended in marriage, with the heroine becoming a "hausfrau." among the most successful "backfischroman" authors, beside else ury, were , with her and . ury intended to end the nesthäkchen series with volume 6, nesthäkchen flies from the nest, describing nesthäkchen's marriage. meidingers jugendschriften verlag, her berlin publisher, was inundated with a flood of letters from ury's young fans, begging for more nesthäkchen stories. after some hesitation, ury wrote four more nesthäkchen volumes, and included comments about her initial doubts in an epilogue to volume 7, nesthäkchen and her chicks.