6th June National Day of Sweden

June 6th is the day when Swedes celebrate their country – normally with a sea of blue and yellow flags! The tradition of celebrating this date began in 1916 at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, in honour of the election of King Gustav Vasa on 6 June 1523, as this was considered the foundation of modern Sweden. Midsummer Eve is also celebrated in June on the 23rd and this is considered a much more important holiday.

It doesn't matter which day is celebrated, but here in Australia either is a good excuse to look at any Swedish children's books that have been translated into English and are available in libraries here.

Many Australian children will have met Pippi Longstocking and Moomins, but they might not recall the author's name or know of any others.

Astrid Lindgren (1907 - 2002) wrote Pippi Longstocking  in 1945 and it is still easy to find copies of this classic.The Lauren Child illustrated version is popular with my students. In 2021 many of Lingren's other books were newly illustrated by Mini Grey and published by Oxford University Press in the UK. These include the Noisy Village stories, the Emil stories and the Lotta stories.

If you want to know more about the influence Astrid Lindgren has had on Children's Literature, read her  picture book biography from the Little People Big Dreams series by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara.

Fantasy writer, Tove Jansson (1914 -2001) was from the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland and her Moomin  stories were published in Sweden.  Moomins are trolls that live in an economically and politically independent state, without any material necessities. She wrote and illustrated both novels and picture books about moomins. Occasionally I can convince a student or parent that Finn Family Moomintroll is worth a read and makes a good serial.  Then sometimes they come back for another in the series.

Following are other authors that I know of and who you will find in our school library.

Findus and Pettson  a picture book series by Sven Nordqvist (1946 -) has also been translated into English and available in Australia. The first book in the series Pancakes for Findus which introduces Farmer Pettson and his cat Findus is a favourite.

Ulf Stark (1944 - 2017) has several books translated into English and Can You Whistle Johanna?  even made it to the Premier's Reading Challenge list.

Rose Lagercrantz (1947 -) has had her wonderful series of books about Dani translated and marketed by Gecko Press and there is a complete set in the library.

Ulf Nilsson (1948 - 2021) is another Swedish writer we can get to know because his books have been published in English by Gecko Press.  His Detective Gordon  series are very popular with Year 2. Detective Gordon is a mystery-solving toad who loves cake.

Lena Anderson (1939 - ) first gained international success for her illustrations in the 1985 picture book Linnea in Monet's Garden, which was translated into English in 1987 and we have two of her Linnea books and another two books about an intrepid young girl Stina,  Stina and Stina's Visit in our school library which she illustrated.

Brita Granström (1969 - ) is a Swedish artist and illustrator who lives and works in the UK and in Sweden. Together with her partner Mick Manning she has a large number of books to explore.

Frida Nilsson (1979 -) is a younger author worth watching out for. She has written four junior novels.

14th March Beds, Sheep and Sleep.

I had been meaning to write more about beds and sleep because I have found it fascinating what is being borrowed from the library display. I thought of three topics and each is really a blog on its own, but this week I ran out of time to write each night. So here is an amalgamation.

Topic 1 Magic Beds
Probably the most famous book for this category is Bed Knob and Broomsticks by Mary Norton. Every child who had had this story read to them yearns for a bed like this. Another short novel that my children love is Ten in a Bed by Allan Ahlberg. Here a girl named Dinah Price is visited by a number of fairytale characters while she is in bed. But there are picture books too where the bed is capable of magic journeys and occurrences. Try:
• The Magic Bed by John Burningham
• Big Bouncy Bed by Julia Jarman and Adrian Reynolds
• Luke and his Amazing Space Bed by Luke Sheridan and Jen McCartney
• Outer Space Bedtime Race by Robert Sanders and Brian Won

Topic 2 Counting Sheep
How can there be so many stories about counting sheep when trying to sleep? My favourite is The 108th Sheep by Ayano Imai, but there are lots of others:
• One More Sheep by Mij Kelly and Russell Ayto
• When Sheep Cannot Sleep by Satoshi Kitamura
• The Sleep  Sheep  by Anna McQinn and Hannah Shaw
• Counting Sheep  by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell

Topic 3  What's Under the Bed?
Starting with books that have that as the title:
• What's Under the Bed? by Joe Fenton
• What's Under the Bed by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
• There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer
• Under the Bed by Paul Bright and Ben Cort
• The Crocodile Under the Bed by Judith Kerr
• Emus Under the Bed by Leann J. Edwards

12th February David Small (1945) Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

It is American author/illustrator David Small's birthday today. I do not know his writing well as my library only has one of his authored works, Imogene's Antlers. This is a humorous story about what happens to Imogene after she wakes up to find she has grown antlers overnight. We do however have two of the picture books that are written by his wife Sarah Stewart and illustrated by him, The Gardener and The Library and When Dinosaurs Came With Everything which is written by Elise Broach and illustrated by him.

The famous naturalist, Charles Darwin celebrated his bicentenary two years ago and at that time many books about him were published for children, many of which were picture books. Three picture books that deal very positively with Darwin's life and his concept of natural selection are Peter Sis's Tree of Life; Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom's What Mr Darwin Saw and Kathryn Lasky and Matthew Trueman's One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin.