INTO THE WOODS 2018 - Children´s Books

INTO THE WOODS A LITERARY MAGAZINE Children´s Books from Cappelen Damm Agency

Photo: Shutterstock.com

INTO THE WOODS Publisher: Cappelen Damm Agency AS 2017 Contact: foreignrights@cappelendamm.no Editor: Anette S. Garpestad Design & layout: Kamilla Ildahl Berg Foto cover: Shutterstock.com Det tas forbehold om endringer i utgivelsesprogram og priser.

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Photo: Guri Pfeifer

Cappelen Damm is Norway´s largest publishing house, publishing approximately 1000 titles a year within the genres of fiction, non-fiction, educational books and children´s books. Cappelen Damm is owned jointly by Bonnier and Egmont.

Cappelen Damm Agency represents most authors published by Cappelen Damm. This includes authors published by the imprint Flamme Forlag.

Contact: foreignrights@cappelendamm.no

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Welcome to the second edition of our literary magazine Into The Woods, this time presenting some of Cappelen Damm Agency’s children and young-adult authors. Actually the title Into The Woods suits this edition even better, because we have grown up with the idea that nature in itself opens up for association and wonderment. The woods can be gloomy and chaotic, it can be light and magical, and it can bring out a wellspring of feelings — just like a good children’s book.

07. ANNA FISKE

In this edition you can read how Alice Lima De Faria took an imaginary picture of a forest at night— where someone cries ‘Who wants to play with me?’—and used it as the starting point for her new book, The Bird Party. ‘Everyone has their own story,’ says Anna Fiske ‘or they can find their own story.’ In her latest book in the Hello-series, Hello Forest, you will always find a new detail which might lead to a new story — a story you make up yourself.

20. ALEXANDER LØKEN

Norwegian children’s books are characterized by a great diversity in both themes and illustrations. In this magazine you can read an interview with Gro Dahle where she describes how she uses picture books as a torch, a magnifying glass to find her way into difficult and taboo subjects. Back in 1958 Astrid Lindgren wrote the following about writing for children: ‘I want to write for readers who can make miracles.

Children can make miracles when they read – that’s why children need books.’

We at Cappelen Damm Agency couldn’t agree more with this statement. Our hope is that this children’s book edition of Into The Woods will give you not only a little insight of the great selection of children’s and young-adult books that Cappelen Damm Agency presents, but also lead the way to new books that can make miracles happen!

We hope you enjoy!

10 years of Hello!

12. ARNFINN KOLERUD

The Million Kroner Kindnes Competition

Writing about the Whitches

24. S YNNE LEA

About You and I

36. ALICE LIMA DE FARIA About the Bird Party

40. GRO DAHLE

The picture book as a research station

54. BJØRN F. RØRVIK Wild Imagination

66. SIMON STRANGER

Those Who Don‘t Exist

76. ØYVIND TORSETER Mulysses

90. LINDE HAGERUP

When Linde met Linde

INGVILD HAUGLAND – Foreign Rights Director

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Everyone can find their own story

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10 years of Hello!

FROM ANNA FISKE

I think everyone has their own story. Everyone can find their own story. The Hello-books can be read over and over again, and you’ll always find something new.

To meet an animal in the woods: a frightened rabbit that jumps into a blueberry bush; a moose that stops at the same time as you; a squirrel gathering nuts way up high; a dove cooing for someone; another dove that answers. Life everywhere, stories that just keep going and thoughts about what happens next.

Life that goes on and co-exists while you live yours.

Hurrah and Hello Forest!

It's been ten years since I made the first book in the series. I remember that I was wonderfully exhausted after getting to know all the characters. It was intense work and such a comprehensive book with so many stories, that when it was finished I said to myself I would never do anything like this again. I didn’t know then that it would become a series.

I said to myself I would never do anything like this again.

Photo: Stein J. Bjørge / Aftenposten

Then my imagination began to itch. A town, that would be fun, with masses of people and animals and cars (yes, cars are fun to draw), and a zoo, and what about the town witch, and the princess who is tired of living in a castle and the crocodile with

toothache, and... Yes, I’d started all over again. After that, it ventured into outer space, under the ground, into the sea and now into the forest. Over the years I’ve had so many suggestions for more books: Hello Body!, Hello Dinosaurs!, Hello Haunted House!, Hello Farm!

It was a librarian in Hedmark who drove me through the woods on my way to visit the next library, who asked if I could make a Hello Forest! “There are so few books about the forest,” she said. The idea simmered away for a few years, but now finally the forest animals have their story.

The scene for Hello Forest!

When I begin with a Hello-book, I start with the background, the scene. Sometimes I have to change it later on, when the characters come in and begin living their lives.

In this book I drew the forest without a river at first, but then I thought where would they go swimming?

Where would the bark boats sail? Where would the fish live? So then a river came along and found its way through the woods. And unforeseen things occurred, such as two lumberjacks suddenly appearing and cutting down many of the trees. So then I have to make sure I remove those trees on all the following pages. They can’t just suddenly grow back again.

Fact of the day The concept of time is 7

The concept of time is important to how the stories can be told. important to how the stories can be told. I show the hours in Hello Earth! and Hello City!, weekdays in Hello Planet!, months in Hello Down There! and Hello Sea!, and times of the day in Hello Forest! In Hello Forest! I wanted to have night-time animals contrasted with the daytime ones. There are lots of facts in the books, and they have to be correct, such as owls, for example, hunting and singing at night, and relaxing all day.

When I was in China, I learned that it’s the combination of facts and fantasy that makes the Hello series so popular there. That is wonderful to hear for a visual storyteller.

Playing with characters I draw one character at a time and figure out what is going to happen to it. Some of them I have thought out beforehand, like the story about the snoring moose and his wife that cant sleep and therefore puts moss in her ears. With other characters the story evolves as I am drawing, like the one about what the witch uses her broom for (brushing away the footmarks of the magpies, as there has to be some order in the forest too).

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Then I just have to draw and colour. 16 of each of the characters, one for each spread. I put them on to the background (concentrate! Not the same character twice on one page!) and then I mark it as finished.

When I make a book with so many details, I set a goal for myself. I make about five characters and their stories in one day. That is enough for one day. If the goal would be to finish the whole book, it would feel like I would never finish.

When I am making the stories, I am often surprised (about things like the badger not only riding a bicycle, but also a kick bike and a Segway), sad (I don´t think that the other animals are very nice to the unicorn), glad (imagine that Gurra and Green-Goblin got the store to make some profit in the end) and happy (about the pigeons loving each other so much that they have to say so all of the time).

When I make a book with so many details, I set a goal for myself.

Where will the journey take us?

Making a book is like going on a long and adventurous journey. At the start of the journey it is impossible to know what will happen.

You know where you are going, but not quite how to get there. How will it feel, taste or smell? If there will be more Hello!-books, of that I do not know. But then there was this idea about Hello Haunted House! It does sound fun, though. Hm! First published on forlagsliv.no Translation by Matt Bagguley

English title: Hello Forest!

Norwegian title: Hallo skogen!

Author: Anna Fiske PICTURE BOOK

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ON THE HANDS?

ON THE THIGHT?

ON THE BUTT?

ON THE BACK?

ON THE BREASTS??

ON THE NOSE?

Bodies and Boundaries #METOO – ANNA FISKE STYLE

Did you know that everyone has his or her own body? And that each one of those bodies has a backside? Well, you'll definitely know after reading this book.

Everyone has a Backside is a book packed with facts and surprises that are thought-provoking and raise awareness around the theme of the human body, through skillful use of humour and intimacy.

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In these times of #metoo, we need ways to talk to children about our bodies and our boundaries – what is OK and what is not? Everyone has a Backside really raises awareness, and give us the perfect entry to having these conversations, through playfullness and naïvite.

Our lovely, strange bodies «Anna Fiske’s illustrations are recognizable and solid with a strong and well-considered visual tone. Cheerful, colourful stick figures are presented on a white background without shading or complicated details. Despite this, Fiske manages to convey finely tuned emotional expression and nuance. [...] This may inspire young children to explore and talk about respect for their own and others’ bodies as well as body sounds, shapes and colours.»

VG «Anna Fiske hits the spot once more with the picture book Everyone has a Backside. […] Everyone has a Backside is an incredibly rich book with a wealth of content that will contribute to both reflection and awareness. It is also very funny, not least due to Anna Fiske’s illustrations. Here she is at her best.»

HAMAR ARBEIDERBLADET

Photo: Maja Hattvang

ANNA FISKE (1964–) studied graphic design and illustration at Konstfackskolan in Stockholm. Since 1992, she has worked as an illustrator of comic books and children’s picture books.

English title: Everyone has a Backside Norwegian title: Alle har en bakside Author: Anna Fiske PICTURE BOOK

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Is it possible to be very rich and also very kind?

Arnfinn Kolerud´s The Million Kroner Kindness Competition was the only Nordic book chosen for the prestigious Books at Berlinale 2018 - in competition with over 150 books from all over the world. It was great to see this wonderful story for children be selected, alongside authors like Isabel Allende and Michael Nast. Below is a short excerpt from the book.

8 – because the number is like a snowman Frank made the same day he and Mum came up with their lottery numbers 11 – two toothbrushes in the same glass in the bathroom 18 – the snowman after they put a broom in his hand

One quite ordinary day, Frank and Mum win the lottery. They’re sitting at opposite sides of the sofa.

There’s a beautiful lady in a beautiful dress on the TV who smiles all the time, probably because she knows she’s a beautiful lady in a beautiful dress.

Frank is flipping through a magazine.

After a while, he hears Mum draw her breath in sharply, as if she’s about to dive.

“Frank,” she whispers.

He looks up from his magazine. Mum’s looking down at her ticket, goose bumps rising on her arm.

“Frank,” she whispers again. Then she puts her hand over her mouth.

On the blue TV screen is the biggest number Frank has ever seen in his life.

Mum gets Frank to check. Twice. Then her mobile phone rings. Frank hears that it’s a lady, but he can’t make out what the lady’s saying, only what Mum says.

“It’s far too much,” says Mum. And: “I’ve never won more than 89 kroner.”

And: “It isn’t right to get so much money without working for it. Can’t we just have half ?”

“Mum,” says Frank. He gets up and shakes his head vigorously.

“Shh! I’m sitting on the phone,” she says.

It’s an odd way of putting it. It’s probably an expression from the old days, when they had phone booths you could go and sit in.

“What if it goes to our heads?” says Mum.

Frank and Mum have won with these numbers:

After the conversation, Mum goes to the loo. There in the little loo she cackles a loud and rather nasty cackle. Perhaps she’s cackling over the cheap loo paper.

2 – because there are two of them, Frank and Mum 3 – letters in Mum’s name 5 – letters in Frank’s name 7 – days in the week they spend together 12

The sequence is far too heavy on low numbers.

It’ll never win, said Mum when they settled on it.

Now their sequence has won. Now it’s never.

Frank looks out of the living room window. It’s the same old view. Grass with houses on. Houses with grass on. Here and there a sheep. The fjord with waves

“Frank,” she whispers again.

Then she puts her hand over her mouth. On the blue TV screen is the biggest number Frank has ever seen in his life. on, the waves with boats on. The shop with lights on. And of course the school, always there reminding him of his homework. But now, as Mum sits cackling in the loo, Frank sees more than that. He sees a swimming pool down by the harbour filled with bright blue water. He sees a ski slope up on the hillside, with red and blue slalom gates. He sees a tennis court with red gravel and a fence around it, a funfair with merry-go-rounds.

The Million Kroner Kindness: One perfectly ordinary day, Frank and Mom win the lottery. And then there aren't any more ordinary days. Everyone in the village is after the twenty-four million. And Mom makes it worse by promising money to whomever is nicest. Frank and Mom flee to southern Europe. How long can they keep their heads in the sand? Who will win the competition? And does it really mean that Frank won't get a single cent?

The Millionaire is a humorous story about how difficult it is to be incredibly rich – and at the same time a good person.

When Mum comes back from the loo, she’s red in the face. Her hair’s sticking up in all directions as if she’s been trying to scare mosquitoes out of it.

“Now we can have anything we want,” she says in a shaky voice. “A new house with a veranda running all the way around. A new car with a garage. A holiday cottage in the mountains.”

“I’ve got something a bit different in mind,” says Frank.

Translation by Lucy Moffatt

Photo: Kristin Oldeide

ARNFINN KOLERUD (1968-) writes for both children and adults. He has received several awards for his books, amongst them The Cultural Ministry debut prize. The Million Kroner Kindness Competition, was chosen for the prestigious Books at Berlinale 2018, nominated to the Norwegian Critics Award and The Cultural Ministry Prize.

He likes playing chess and visiting schools.

English title: The Million Kroner Kindness Competition Norwegian title: Snillionen Author: Arnfinn Kolerud FICTION

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Everything great that ever happened in the World, first happened in someones imagination ASTRID LINDGREN

Working with Astrid Lindgren The best in the world

Have you heard of the butterfly effect?

It’s a concept that originates from American meteorologist Edward Lorenz. He said that “the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas.”

Sometimes, something tiny that happened earlier in our life can suddenly have unexpected consequences many years later. When I was three and a half years old, Mom and I were Christmas shopping in Oslo. That day, I came home with the picture book Christmas in the Hillside Hamlet by Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland.

Astrid Lindgren has said: “I want to write for readers who can make miracles. Children make miracles when they read – that’s why children need books” (1958).

My book, Astrid Lindgren, is a fully illustrated and kid-friendly biography. Through stories, quotes, facts and magical illustrations, we get to know one of the world’s greatest children’s authors. In an inspiring way, the book offers knowledge about the children’s author, advocate, editor, and fellow human being: Astrid Lindgren.

For me, Christmas in the Hillside Hamlet, was a miracle. It was quite simply a magical book that I experienced with all my senses. As I looked at the pictures 16

while Mom or Dad read to me, I could literally smell the gingerbread the children in the Hillside Hamlet were baking for Christmas.

Perhaps this picture book was the flap of a butterfly’s wings in my life? I don’t know. But what I do know is that now that I’m an adult and working as a researcher, teacher, author and translator, there is one thing I like more than anything else: Getting to work with Astrid Lindgren’s authorship.

And now I’ve even gotten the chance to make a book with Lisa Aisato about Astrid Lindgren’s life – a biography for children. I wrote, and Lisa has created the incredible images – at least, I think so.

When she sent me the first images, I actually started to cry.

Lisa didn’t get a finished manuscript from me when she started creating the images – just a few short phrases and a lot of keywords. When she sent me the first images, I actually started to cry, I liked them so much. I felt like Lisa was able to depict Astrid Lindgren, Pippi, Emil, Ronja, The Brothers Lionheart and all of Astrid’s other children in an unbelievably beautiful, respectful and loving way. Then I could keep writing, and Lisa could make more images. That’s how we continued until the book was done.

We wanted to make a “coffee table” book for chil-

A Children´s book about Astrid Lindgren: Through stories, quotes, facts and magical illustrations, we become familiar with one of the world's greatest children's authors.

dren – a beautiful book that you can read from beginning to end, or just leaf through here and there. Both Lisa and I hope that this book can contribute to even more children and adults wanting to read Astrid Lindgren’s fantastic books. «… a rock-solid and beautifully illustrated biography for children. (…) Small details and big topics are told with the same interest and enthusiasm, and Bjorvand’s detailed knowledge makes the biography intimate and entertaining. Lisa Aisato, the illustrator, shows great skill as a visual artist. The tightly written and inspired text and the fine art illustrations together capture the tone of Lindgren’s life and universe and make the biography of the year a pure joy.» DAGBLADET

The book follows a classic chronological development from Astrid's happy childhood to her old age in Stockholm. The book explores important, exciting and humorous episodes in Astrid’s life and work. We hear about her love of nature, her lifelong joy of playing and climbing trees, reading and writing, and fighting for children's and animal rights. But we also hear about her life's many dark moments – as a young and impoverished single mother, her longing for love, and – as she so often expressed it – the experience of how difficult it can be to be human.

This biography is a unique starting point for inspiring new generations to read Astrid Lindgren's books.

«This book is a pleasure to behold.» FÆDRELANDSVENNEN «A thought-provoking and beautiful book about Astrid Lindgren, for both adults and children.» ROGALANDS AVIS

Photo: Cappelen Damm

AGNES-MARGRETHE BJORVAND (1969–) is a lecturer at the University of Agder, where she teaches literature and the dissemination of literature as part of preschool teacher training, as well as in further education courses for teachers and school librarians. She has written many articles about children's and young adult literature, focusing particular on picture books and the authorship of Astrid Lindgren.

She has also worked as co-editor for many books.

English title: A Children´s book about Astrid Lindgren Norwegian title: Astrid Lindgren Author: Agnes-Margrethe Bjorvand NON-FICTION

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Boy and Girl

An edgy book series for modern day kids Boy pretends he is a bear.

Girl pretends she is scared.

“I just want to be me,” says Boy. “I just want to be me,” says Girl.

It is fun.

Grown-up comes in.

Both of them get a cuddle from Grown-up.

Both of them get a band-aid from Grown-up.

Boy chases Girl.

Round and round in circles.

Girl falls over. So does Boy. It hurts.

Boy turns into an angry bear.

Boy bellows a bearish bellow.

Girl turns into an angry snake.

She squirms towards the bear and hisses.

The bear hits the snake.

The snake bites the bear.

Both bleed.

Both cry.

Now everything is stupid.

“I don’t want to be a bear any more,” says Boy. “I don’t want to be a snake any more,” says Girl.

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Everything’s all right again.

“Are you a snake now?” asks Boy. “No, I’m just Girl,” says Girl.

“Are you a bear now?” asks Girl.

“No, I’m just Boy,” says Boy. “I am me,” says Girl.

“And you are you,” says Boy. That is good.

But a bit boring.

What will they think up next?

“I’ll pretend I’m you!” says Boy. “I’ll pretend I’m you!” says Girl.

Boy and Girl-series: The series about Boy and Girl is really taking kids of our time seriously. Playing with gender and twisting everyday life – this book series is both funny, smart and good looking.

Photo: Cappelen Damm / Augon Johnsen

HILDE MATRE LARSEN (1975–) has worked as a literary mediator, reviewer and writer, as well as a publishing editor. She has written several children's books and studied literature, art history and children's and young adult literature. She lives in Oslo with her husband, children and an imaginary cat named Renate.

MARI KANSTAD JOHNSEN (ill) (1981-) lives and works in Oslo as an illustrator, author and painter. She was educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and Konstfack in Stockholm. She debuted as a picture book illustrator in 2011, and as a picture book author in 2013.

English title: Boy and Girl-series Norwegian title: Gutt og jente Author: Hilde Matre Larsen & Mari Kanstad Johnsen (ill) PICTURE BOOKS

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Writing About the Witches

BY ALEXANDER LØKEN

The Witch Night is certainly the only one As I stared out into the darkness, barely following of my books that can be said to be partly my driving teacher’s instructions, I caught sight of a little house hidden up in a grove, partly concealed based on my own experience.

Not because I have a self-absorbed twin sister who dislikes me just as much as I dislike her, or because I’ve ever been taken prisoner by a coven of witches.

Nor because I’ve ever been thrown into a well, faced attempted drowning in milk or been attacked by a man-eating squirrel.

But because a few years ago when I was finally on the point of getting my driving licence I did, in fact, do a nighttime driving demonstration in Nittedal.

Nittedal is fairly near Oslo, but on that dark winter’s night, with snow-flakes dancing in front of the headlights and only a glimpse of the houses scattered across the white fields, it felt as if I was a long way from the city after all. As if I was isolated from my environment.

… I caught sight of a little house hidden up in a grove, partly concealed by bare trees.

And it was then, as I sat there in the car with a group of young people half my age, that it struck me: both my surroundings and this situation were the perfect starting-point for a really spooky YA novel.

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by bare trees. A solitary window glowed faintly. And, as often happens when you see these kind of hidden places, I thought: “Who on earth lives there?”

It took a while for the answer to come: Witches!

… over the centuries, tens of thousands of innocent people have been accused of witchcraft and burnt at the stake.

A group of witches would be the enemy the book’s young hero would pit his wits against.

In the past, I’ve written about everything from trolls and sea monsters to ghosts and revenants, but up until then, the topic of witches had been a blank page for me. But when I sat down to research witches – especially the witch trials in Norway in the 1600s – I realised I was facing a major challenge: it’s no easy matter to write about evil witches and good witch-finders when you look back at the historical atrocities. Because over the centuries, tens of thousands of innocent people have been accused of witchcraft and burnt at the stake. Most of them fell victim to hysteria, superstition or the simple fact that they were a bit different. So how could I write

a story where witches not only actually existed but where many of them were also malevolent, dangerous creatures? And isn’t it true that, in reality, the so-called witch-hunters – often men of the church – were “the baddies” if we look back in history?

… it was such a pleasure to invent these nasty witches in all their ghastly glory But what solved my dilemma was the idea of having two protagonists, two characters who loathe each other. Because by telling the story from two points of view, where both characters think they’re right, and where the behaviour and misdeeds of both might perhaps be justifiable, enabled me to tell a story in which nothing is simply black and white.

what really made it a fun book to write was that I could get stuck into all the stuff that’s a bit yucky and nasty. Maybe I didn’t manage to steer entirely clear of the more clichéd creatures people associate with witches – like cats and ravens – but I also supplemented them with a few less common animals: moths, squirrels and slimy forest slugs. And it was such a pleasure to invent these nasty witches in all their ghastly glory. Wooden teeth, lips sown shut and rotating eyes – I totally let my imagination run wild; no idea was too odd or absurd.

So if The Witch Night is as exciting to read as it was entertaining to write, I’d say I’ve succeeded with the story that started out in a car, late one night in Nittedal.

Translation by Lucy Moffatt

And the virtuous Nathaniel and his liberated twin sister Ada certainly subject each other to an awful lot of terrible things in the few hours during which the plot of the book unfolds – even bearing in mind their sibling rivalry. All the same, it’s difficult to work out which of them is evil and which is good – whom you’re supposed to cheer on – just the same as it often is in real life.

But The Witch Night isn’t just a story about right and wrong and about difficult moral choices. Because

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The Witch Night AN EXCERPT

The creature made no attempt to conceal itself as it came clambering headfirst down the tree trunk. It was a squirrel. Its fur was nearly the same shade of dirty brown as the bark – as if the winter had scattered a layer of road dust over them both. Bark scattered beneath its claws as it approached the ground.

When the squirrel was on a level with Nathaniel’s face, it studied him with black pinhead eyes, which glittered in the light from the house. The creature cocked its head, nostrils quivering. Its ears, one of which seemed half-chewed, turned slightly as if the squirrel were studying him with all its senses. It observed, listened, and sniffed the air. Then it slipped to the ground, ran across the forest floor and stopped right in front of Nathaniel’s moccasins. For an instant, it spat out a kind of irritated clicking sound – a mixture of lip-smacking and snuffling. And then it set off up his trouser leg. Nathaniel suppressed a howl and kicked out with his leg. But the squirrel was faster and had already reached the front of his duffel coat, where it clawed its way up the loops, stopping in the middle of his chest. There it hung, like a climber on a rock-face, as if summoning the courage for the last push. Nathaniel stiffened and pressed himself against the wall of the house.

It wasn’t natural, he thought – not for the first time this evening. No squirrel ever behaved like this.

The squirrel studied him again, sniffed the air. Then it opened its little mouth, wide open as if in a yawn, and revealed a row of tiny teeth: teeth sharp as needles that seemed stolen from the jaws of some deep-water 22

fish. Teeth that clearly didn’t belong in a squirrel’s mouth.

Giving in to his terror, Nathaniel screamed. The squirrel responded with a hiss. Perhaps it gave a start, because it hurled itself backward, kicking off from his chest. It twisted in the air, hit the tree trunk claws first and hung there like a tennis ball stuck to Velcro.

It stared at Nathaniel, gave one last insulted click, then set off up the trunk and vanished into the treetop, sending pale-grey pine-needles scattering down into the snow.

Just then, a voice asked: “What are you doing here?”

Nathaniel jumped. His knees gave way and he fumbled for the wall of the house, pulling off a flake of paint as he tumbled forward. He hit the ground knees first. Wet snow soaked through his jeans. Pine needles pierced his palms. When he looked up, she was standing over him. He saw naked legs in wellington boots.

On her upper calf, he saw a tattoo: a creature with little wings. Some kind of fairy.

“Here,” she said, reaching out a hand with manicured nails. “Let me help you up.”

Nathaniel checked that his heart had started beating again before hesitantly grasping her hand and struggling to his feet. The woman was the same height as him, dressed in a grey woollen coat. He wasn’t sure whether fear or shame dominated. She was still holding his hand when she introduced herself.

“I’m Celeste.”

She was fairly young, maybe in her mid-twenties. Her coat had a hood, which she’d pulled up over her head.

The Witch Night: It happens the evening twins Ada and Nathaniel are practicing night driving. They're awaiting a couple of boring hours in the car with the driving instructor.

But then the snowfall gets thicker, and suddenly the car – and the evening – takes an unexpected turn. It's the evening they meet the witches. And the evening they learn why they've always hated each other. Exciting horror story from Alexander Løken.

A few dark blonde curls poked out of it. There was an unsettling familiarity about her.

“Teeth…” stuttered Nathaniel. “The squirrel.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about old Iora,” the woman said, a little smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “He’s not used to visitors – and between you and me, he’s a tad senile.”

Nathaniel stammered, trying to repress what the woman had just said.

“W-we’ve had an accident,” he said, as if to cling onto something he knew for a fact to be true.

“I know,” Celeste replied. And just then, Nathaniel noticed something.

Something that made him doubt he was entirely well and wonder whether the crash had shaken something loose in his brain. His instincts screamed at him, told him to run, but his legs didn’t respond. It was her eyes, or more precisely, her ice-blue irises.

They were turning, spinning – round and round like a cogwheel.

Round and round and round and round and round and round … and round … and round.

Have fun – and get scared!

Translation by Lucy Moffatt

Photo: Moment Studio

ALEXANDER LØKEN (1982-) made his literary debut in 2014 with The Troll Skull (Trollskallen), the first book in the trilogy about the character Edvard Frost. The trilogy include classic Norwegian storytelling and mythology.

The Dead Can See You (De døde ser deg) published in 2017 was Løkens first book in the Young Adult segment.

English title: The Witch Night Norwegian title: Heksenatten Author: Alexander Løken FICTION

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About You and I SYNNE LEA

Being in the same boat.

I think reading a book can feel like this – like being in the same boat. Writing a book with Stian also reminds me of that – that we are in the same boat, even when we’re not.

Stian and I don’t often meet when we make a story together. At least not so that we’re in the same place, in the same room.

We begin by mail.

I send Stian loose sentences, thoughts, details, maybe a character, maybe a poem, a dream.

Often, I don’t know what it is when I send it.

Mostly, I understand a little better once Stian answers.

Stian might reply with a picture, something wonderous, a sketch, something he has seen, remembered, a thought he had while reading what I’d written.

That’s how we begin.

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Sometimes I think it's like packing before a trip. A journey to a place I've never been, and therefore don’t know what we need to bring.

I write in some rainy weather, a friend who fails, a cooking stove, a secret or a wish. Stian adds a bonfire, a grandfather, someone who has to escape.

We go through our packing list together, and realize that we don’t need the rain or the friend who fails – but a little brother, a rope, and a game. We check if we have room for a Great Auk, one that no longer exists? Do we need an island, some rocks or a storm?

A seal? A sail? How big must the ocean be?

Just as big as we feel like.

Stian is a good reader. When commenting on a sentence I've sent to him, and not on another, it never seems accidental. So I try to follow the sentences where he continues – with thoughts that I’ve noticed give him ideas. And I know he does the same to what I send him.

I think that's our way of working together.

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You and I, says Grandpa.

His hand is dry and rough, and smells of kelp and rope and home.

Let’s play our game now, says little brother.

You first, I suggest.

No, little brother says. Grandpa always starts.

He nods at me and says if I’ll just tell him what I’m thinking about, he’ll show us how to make fire, even though we’re far out at sea.

Grandpa believes it helps to think of the night as the deepest pocket in the best pair of trousers he owns.

Grandpa runs the back of his hand over his forehead and says he isn’t in pain.

He just needs to rest a while.

You’ll get tired and cold, little brother continues.

I’d carry on swimming regardless, I say.

I’ll have to go to bed at night, I say, and wake up in the morning without you.

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I think that's why it's important for us to start on open ground, with an empty bag, so to speak. To have room for the story which is neither mine nor his, but both his and mine.

We need something in common, something we share.

This time it was fear. Fear of losing those we love.

This fear was the boat in the story.

A boat we're in together.

Once we’d found it, we could start building the characters and the conflict. We could start the journey.

The first pictures Stian sent me were of the vast ocean space. The little boat on the enormous surface of the sea. The thin waterline separating what's over and under the water.

The sea is so huge and kind and soft and mild, but also so violent, unstable, cruel and random.

The pictures Stian sent made me think of comfort. And maybe to yearn for comfort.

When Stian and I wrote Night Watch a few years ago, we wanted to write about comfort. I don’t think it ended up being about that. Most often, I don’t get to write about what I really prefer, just as the girl in You and I doesn’t quite manage to say what she’d rather say.

But when we began making this story, I think both Stian and I wanted to give comfort a second try.

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Sometimes I might say to my children: It's fine. It's going to be fine. And when I say it, I can hear my own parents and grandparents, from the time they said the same thing to me.

I’ve often wondered what “it” is.

Because I know it doesn’t always mean something my children, or I, then-and-there think of as good. It usually means something else, something strange, something I’m still not aware of. It is a journey, that too.

It's also something I cannot totally promise.

Still, it is a comfort in itself.

Because we are in the same boat?

When we wrote You and I, we hoped that the three people in the boat, the girl, grandfather and the little brother, would find some of this comfort on their journey.

Translation by Matt Bagguley

You and I: Grandfather´s rowboat is ready, little brother runs ahead. They are going to row, play the letter game, see the great ocean. But the girl in this story is hesitant. There is something that is hard to talk about. One day all of this will be theirs, grandfather says.

The boat, the rain cap, the camping stove. But the girl does not want it.

She only wants to keep her grandfather.

You and I is a story about loving someone, and about being afraid of losing the one you love.

Photo: André Løyning / Aurora Wilhelmine Linchausen

STIAN HOLE (ill.) (1969–) is a reputed illustrator and author. He has created several prize winning picture books and a number of book covers. For his works, he has received prizes like the Brage Prize, Bologna Ragazzi Award and Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.

SYNNE LEA (1974–) was born and raised in Oslo. She has published two poetry collections, and one novel for young readers; Leo and Mei (2012). In 2013 The Night Watch (Nattevakten) was published, a poetry collection for children illustrated

by Stian Hole. The book was nominated to The Brage Prize and The Norwegian Critics‘ Prize. Synne Lea´s books for children and young readers have been sold to a number of countries.

English title: You and I Norwegian title: Du og jeg Author: Stian Hole & Synne Lea PICTURE BOOK

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Samson and Roberto

Unexpected Friends of Ingvar Ambjørnsen Sometime during the mid-90s, I was contacted by a small German publisher. They were wondering if I’d ever considered writing a series of books for children. I immediately answered no, as I never write on assignment, and I didn’t know a single thing about children! I’d written a number of novels and short stories for adults, and a whole series of crime novels for young adults. But children? I didn’t have any myself, and none of my friends had children, either.

But I did have a cat. A tabby cat who would lie on my desk, contemplating me as I wrote. Perhaps that was how it began? I like to think so.

Pretty soon, I’d started on a story about a clever cat called Roberto and a kind – but somewhat simple – dog named Samson. Meanwhile, out in the real world, the little German publisher went bankrupt.

And thus, Samson and Roberto became Norwegian instead. My regular Norwegian publisher, Cappelen Damm, welcomed the two friends with open arms.

In volume number one The Legacy of Uncle Rin-TinTei, we meet the two in a miserable little shack in a heavily polluted city. They are broke and hungry.

But then one day, the postman comes with a mysterious letter. All of the characters in the books are animals, and the postman is a curious little pig who demands to be present when the letter is opened. It turns out that Samson has inherited a hotel by the 30

sea, appropriately named Fjordgløtt, or Fjordview.

The two friends venture there on foot. But alas! the hotel isn’t much more than a ruin. In the first book, the hotel is rebuilt with the help of new friends – like the unassuming badger Greta and the rabid but idealistic otter Olli. In this book, you’ll also find a spooky ghost story, a tumultuous love, Scottish mole poetry and one very terrible tax collector.

In book number two Bad-tempered Buddies, our friends get a visit from the infamous crow-punk group of the same name. They’re holding a concert in the village that almost tears the hotel down again. In the third book, Father Pietro’s Secret, a short-tempered but pious Italian beaver arrives in a hot air balloon – while at the same time the village is subjected to a self-appointed sheriff with some psychopathic traits.

In book number four Captain Nero, the community is threatened once again by someone with a serious character flaw. Captain Nero is a kind of exaggerated version of adult literature’s Captain Nemo. He arrives in Fjordview by submarine and with extremely malicious intentions. All of the stories have their own mysteries and complexities, but each ends with peace and harmony.

When I write these stories, I always check into room number three at the Fjordview Hotel, where a desk and red wine are available to me at all times.

It was halfway through book number one that I’d already begun to understand that it didn’t matter that I didn’t know any children, as long as I was able to find the child within myself.

Samson and Roberto: The four books about Samson and Roberto are loved by young and old readers alike.

The clever cat, Roberto, and the amiable dog, Samson, inherited Fjordgløtt Guesthouse and they live a peaceful life there alongside the badger, Greta.

Handyman otter Olli pops by when something needs repairing.

Written by Ingvar Ambjørnsen Translation by Olivia Lasky

Photo: Marie Sjøvold

INGVAR AMBJØRNSEN (1956-) is considered to be one of the great storytellers of contemporary Norwegian literature. Since his literary début in 1981, Ambjørnsen has written 21 novels and five collections of short stories, as well as essay collections and several books for children and young adults. He has won a number of awards, including the Riverton Prize, the Brage Award, the Booksellers’ Award and the Riksmål Prize. His works are sold to 28 countries. Many of them have been adapted into films with great success.

English title: Captain Nero - Samson & Roberto #4 Norwegian title: Samson & Roberto: Kaptein Nero Author: Ingvar Ambjørnsen ILLUSTRATED FICTION

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AT THE END OF THE 1880´S, THE PRESSURE TO GIVE WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE INCREASED GREATLY. IN COUNTRIES ALL AROUND UNIONS FIGHTING FOR THESE RIGHTS WERE FORMED.

LEADING FEMINISTS FROM SEVERAL COUNTRIES TRAVELLED TO CONGRESSES AND VISITED EACH OTHER. INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS EVOLVED.

Women in Battle

Women in Battle: 150 years ago, women and men led very different lives. Women could not vote or make their own money. They had no control over their own bodies. The father would make her decisions until she was married. Then her husband would take over.

This changed when women began to get organized. In this book writer Marta Breen and illustrator Jenny Jordahl tells the story about the Womens‘ movement and the many dramatic battles.

Breen and Jordahl have cooperated on a number of book projects, amongst others The F word. 155 reasons to be a feminist that they received the Norwegian Cultural Ministry non-fiction award for in 2015, and the bestseller 60 Women You Should Have Known (2016).

Photo: Maria Gossé

MARTA BREEN (1976-) is a writer, journalist and one of Norway‘s most profiled feminists. She has written a number of bestselling non-fiction books on the subject of feminism, both textsbooks and illustrated books in collaboration with Jenny Jordahl, interviewed at page 82.

English title: Women in Battle – freedom, equality and sisterhood Norwegian title: Kvinner i kamp Author: Marta Breen & Jenny Jordahl NON-FICTION/GRAPHIC

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LUCKILY THE ENGLISH WRITER AND PHILOSOPHER MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT KEPT UP THE FIGHT.

WOLLSTONECRAFT WAS RUNNING A SCHOOL FOR GIRLS IN LONDON WHEN SHE WROTE HER FIRST BOOK “THOUGHT ON THE EDUCATION OF DAUGHTERS” (1787).

FIVE YEARS LATER HER CLASSIC WORK “A DEFENCE FOR WOMENS RIGHTS” WAS PUBLISHED.

IDIOT

IN THE BOOK SHE ATTACKED ROUSSEAU AND HIS VIEW ON “FEMALE NATURE”.

WOMEN ARE MORE INTERESTED IN BEAUTY AND NEEDLEPOINT EMBROIDERIES THAN THEY ARE INTERESTED IN SCIENCE AND POLITICS BECAUSE THEY ARE RAISED THAT WAY.

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EDUCATION FOR GIRLS AND BOYS WOULD BE OF GREAT BENEFIT FOR ALL OF SOCIETY. EDUCATED WOMEN WOULD BE MORE VALUABLE CITIZENS…

…AND ALSO MUCH MORE INTERESTING CONVERSATION PARTNERS FOR THEIR HUSBANDS.

IN 1975 THE UN PROCLAIMED THE FIRST WOMENS YEAR. THE HIGHLIGHT WAS A GREAT WOMEN´S CONVENTION IN MEXICO CITY. PARTICIPANTS FROM 133 COUNTRIES ATTENDED. THE MAIN GOAL OF THE CONFERENCE WAS THAT THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD SHOULD BE EQUAL TO MEN AND TAKE GREATER PART IN THE GOVERNMENT OF SOCIETY.

A PLAN WAS MADE WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

IN THE YEARS THAT FOLLOWED MANY POSITIVE THINGS HAPPENED, ESPECIALLY IN THE WESTERN WORLD.

FAR MORE WOMEN STARTED EDUCATION ON A HIGHER LEVEL.

WITH AVAILABLE CHILD CARE AND THE RIGHT TO HAVE A LEAVE OF ABSENCE WHEN HAVING A CHILD, WOMEN FINALLY ENTERED THE WORKLIFE FULL ON.

IN MANY COUNTRIES PREGNANCY WAS NO LONGER A REASON TO FIRE PEOPLE.

Everything is suddenly very quiet.

If only Worm was here, Flapps sighs.

How could I give away my only friend?

What is a friend?

ALICE LIMA DE FARIA ABOUT THE BIRD PARTY

The picture book The Bird Party is all about Flaps the bat, and her slightly boring friend Worm. Their relationship is a little strained and the story begins with Worm not wanting to play any more. On top of that, Worm has been invited to a party with the birds. Flaps isn’t invited, but steals the invitation from Worm and goes to the party anyway …

What is a friend? How kind should you be? What is socially accepted? When do you belong to the crowd?

How did it all begin?

It started while I toyed with the idea of what could happen if a bat plonked itself down with a group of birds. How would the birds react? And what about the bat? I was thinking of birds and bats in more of a metaphorical sense, with human characteristics, than as the mammals or vertebrates they really are.

I wasn’t trying to make a textbook. I wanted to create an environment from which something could grow, some form of conflict, that could perhaps be the beginning of a story.

I imagined a lonely bat that sat and played guitar and sang sad songs at night.

Same but different Birds and bats have many common features. They live in the woods, up in the trees, so they’re neighbours, of a kind. And they can fly. I imagined that really, they ought to get along quite easily. But they are also very different. Bats fly alone at night and are dark, hairy and quiet. Birds prefer to be in a flock, screech to each other, and are often colourful.

But the main difference, that I wanted to utilize in my story, was that they slept at different times. Bats during the day and the birds at night.

It felt like an exciting starting point. So I began writing and sketching. And I asked myself questions like:

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I wanted to focus on the least social character I wanted to write a story where I could focus on the least social character. And I wanted the reader to both laugh and feel empathy for a nocturnal animal like Flaps. I wanted the book to be for children who feel different and who somehow feel that they don’t fit in socially.

And then I began to outline different situations and moods, which I later used to create a storyboard. I outlined most of my ideas and sketches to get some kind of control over the story. But at an early stage there was a picture in my head that wouldn’t go away.

It was a picture of a forest at night. The tree-tops were different houses with windows, and from the windows you could hear snoring. And then someone cries out in the dark: “Who wants to play with me?”

I drew many different versions of this.

The image that forms the story’s hook I kept the picture of the forest at night, and it became the first spread in the book. Kind of a hook. It was relatively late in the process that the character Worm – Flaps’ quite boring friend – entered the story.

Then I started doing sketches of the characters. I imagined the bat to be a grubby, dishevelled, and black-haired character; someone who’s lively and enthusiastic socially but who has difficulty judging his surroundings.

And the birds as colourful, and somewhat snobbish; Clean, wellto-do, and bright, but also a little weird, anxious and quite selfobsessed.

Doomed to fail An important premise in the story is that bats are night animals, and birds sleep at night. The bat takes on the impossible task of staying up and hanging out with the birds all day long. It is doomed to fail.

The Bird Party: Flapps is a nocturnal animal who gets bored when there's no one to play with. Everyone else sleeps at night – just not Flapps!

Sometimes Mark plays with her, but tonight Mark has to go to bed earlier than usual. Mark was invited to a birthday party at the birds' place.

Flapps wasn't. So, she steals the invitation when Mark is sleeping and goes by herself. But the birds aren't particularly interested in having a visit from Flapps. They want Mark, and there's a reason for that …

The author of the successful It wasn´t me, said Robinhound follows up with a delightful story about feeling like an outsider, about finding your own friends and about being proud of who you are.

The events take place over one day, and to emphasize this, I've used colour and shadow. So the colour of the trees changes from blue to yellow, and then back to blue.

The Bird Party has become a story about feeling lonely and excluded, about doing everything to fit in and yet still not be able to.. But as a result of all this you find yourself, and rediscover a friend. Being a bat and having a worm as a friend isn’t so bad, after-all.

First published on forlagsliv.no Translated by Matt Bagguley

Photo: Billybonkers

ALICE LIMA DE FARIA (1968–) is a Norwegian-Swedish scenographer and illustrator.

She graduated from Gothenburg School of Design and Crafts and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and holds a Master of Fine Art degree in Scenography. She began her work as a freelance illustrator in 2005, producing book covers and working for a range of magazines and journals.

Nominated to The Cultural Ministry Prize 2017.

English title: The Bird Party Norwegian title: Fuglefesten Author: Alice Lima de Faria PICTURE BOOK

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I hope these picture books can let air and light into topics that are difficult to touch

About families’ dark rooms

– The picture book as research station GRO DAHLE ABOUT OPEN SESAME

For me, the picture book is a laboratory for testing out words and metaphors, tales and fables. I examine family situations and attempt to create stories around themes; try to show how difficult and painful things can develop; I try to give concrete form to psychological questions and simplify them.

How do you find words for child neglect? How do you find terms for safe and unsafe when it comes to violence in the home? How do you find your way into the topic of mental illness and the family? How do you talk to children and young people and adults about porn?

As a one-time psychology student with an interest in families’ dark rooms and shadowy corners, I think it’s exciting to use the picture book as a flashlight, the picture book as a magnifying glass – to make my way into taboos and difficult subjects. I feel as if I’m researching and the picture books are my research. They aren’t perfect and they aren’t the final word on these questions, but they are the findings I’ve made.

Photo: Geir Dokken

The picture book as a medium As a medium, the picture book lends itself particularly to difficult questions and tough topics. The framework of the picture book forces me to simplify and give concrete form and show – so that children, adults and young people can all find stories and levels that give them something.

In this way, with this language and with the visual storytelling in addition, the picture book becomes a way of opening closed rooms and locked doors, and through their stories, I hope these picture books can let air and light into topics that are difficult to touch and embarrassing to talk about.

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My challenge as an author is always how I’m going to show a subject in concrete terms and finding a situation. I often use metaphors to create a concrete form. In The Octopus, I chose an octopus as a metaphor for the abuser. In Aquarium, I chose a goldfish as a metaphor for a mother who wasn’t capable of taking care of her child. In Open Sesame I knew at once that Ali Baba and the 40 thieves should be the basis here, the underlying allusion, the reference.

Picture books aren’t just for children. Picture books aren’t children’s books. They are for everybody.

Children often read and understand the superficial level, and relate to the direct and concrete plot. Older readers also read the subtext and think about situations and feelings. The adult reader reads in even more dimensions and can draw in social and ethical interpretations. In this way, the picture book has several layers depending on who is reading.

Picture books aren’t just for

children. Picture books aren’t

children’s books. They are for everybody.

“The drama of the turning of the page”

My task was to recreate this adapted fairy tale through selected, concrete situations. And, just like in the theatre, we get that same surge and sigh of wonder as when the stage rotates or the curtain goes up – by turning to the next page. This leafing through, these scene changes are the magic behind the picture book, and the very core of the picture book’s praxis. Barbara Bader put it like this in 1976: “The drama of the turning of the page”, which has become a core way of thinking about the picture book as a specific medium. The dramatic hiatus between one set of facing pages and the next, in terms of both content and image, means that this leafing between scenes creates surprises and deepens the emotional engagement in the story.

The theatre of the picture book Perhaps the reader is alone in the theatre of the picture book, perhaps with other children; perhaps there’s an adult there too, a safe adult with a lap that forms the amphitheatre the child can lean against.

And then it’s easy to ask and easy to talk and easy to be together in thoughts.

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The picture book is often open and so it plays on the reader, leaving room for the reader’s own experience. If the child has seen porn, the experience is different than for a child who’s never seen it before.

So for some it will involve wonderment and for others, recognition.

About Open Sesame In Open Sesame there was a difficult balancing act, which was interesting to work with: How “pornified” should the porn be? Kaia – who illustrated the book – and I wanted a book dealing with the topic of porn to show what porn is without it being porn. This isn’t porn for children, nor is it a first introduction to porn; it’s more about the encounter with porn, the experience of stumbling across pornographic pictures without knowing what this is, and the shame involved in the mother finding out and catching the main character red-handed.

Kaia’s style lends itself well to this topic because it isn’t all that realistic. It’s more caricature-like, expressive and humorous – it can make things harmless and I think it may lend itself to a book like this dealing with porn.

The picture book as connection One common myth about the picture book is that it’s a sleeping aid, it’s bedtime reading, night-time reading – and there are many picture books made for precisely this purpose. But I don’t make picture books as sleeping aids. For me, it’s more a matter of waking up: connection, experience and “waking aids”. JonRoar Bjørkvold, a musicology professor who wrote about the musical human being, says of song and music that the child must be driven towards sensory alertness, not towards sensory numbness, towards the aesthetic (the artistic experience), not towards the anaesthetic (numbness). The same can be said of the picture book as a sensory connection, an artistic experience, an awakening to feelings and colours and discoveries in the visual and verbal narrative.

I believe in picture books as both night-time and day-time books; I believe in wading in picture books, trampling over them, opening them up wherever you like and looking and reading, leafing and peering; picture books strewn across the floor and table, picture books in the living-room, in the kids’ room, in the bedroom; picture books full of pine needles, crumbs and sand.

Opening a picture book is a sensory experience I believe in picture books as artefacts, as physical objects: the different formats, the different weights and sizes, the different sensory experiences. Opening a picture book dense with colour and redolent with the scent of printing ink is a sensory experi44

ence. Opening a great big picture book that is big as a table or a tiny weeny little picture book as small as a child’s hand are also sensory experiences. Glossy or matt paper, thick or thin paper, rough or smooth are all sensory experiences. And that’s just what Kaia, an illustrator, and I, an author, want to give people with our picture book: a sensory experience. Colours that leap out to meet your gaze, the scent of dye and ink, the size and the rectangular format!

The picture book as a tool and stand-in; the picture book as a friend How do you deal with a difficult conversation? How do you start to talk about a difficult subject? And in this case, Open Sesame: How do you begin dealing with something as awkward and embarrassing as porn? In our home, we never had the porn conversation with the kids; the sex conversation, yes, the condom conversation, yes, but not the porn conversation.

In our society Now, in the society we have, my children are adults and know more about porn than I do. But for families with children who are growing up now – and for schools – and perhaps for kindergartens – the porn conversation may well be a conversation it’s necessary to have. In that case, the picture book can be a tool. And the same goes for my other picture books – about violence in the home, about child neglect, about incest.

The characters in the situation and the story itself can serve as stand-ins who can show how the conversation might take place, show what can be done.

The mother in Open Sesame comes up with precisely the words that my advisers have given me, says the things it might be sensible to say, good to say, in or46

der to offer understanding, eliminate shame and any feeling of inferiority, and provide a sense of security.

So the book can also be used in this way – as a voice, a voice that says the things it might be good to say, a voice that shows the adults how to get started with the talk, how to make room for this conversation.

The picture book provides an adult voice that can be consoling and say the things that might make porn easier to understand, and perhaps eliminate some of the shame. I hope.

To reach out Even though I believe there’s room for both adults and young people in Open Sesame, children are the people I primarily want to reach out to with this story. I really want to try and eliminate some of the pressure behind the nasty secrets, relieve a bit of the shame, remove a bit of the feeling of guilt, say that there’s nothing wrong with having gone in and taken a look around, because this isn’t forbidden.

I want to create a bit of humour there, bring a bit of lightness, air things out a bit, lift the lid, turn on the light and say “hello there!” to this topic, so that children dare to speak about it and laugh about it. I want adults to dare to talk about it, so that children and adults can ask each other, so that they can find terms to hold onto and words to express what is safe and what feels unsafe, to render the word and the area harmless, to clear the mines.

Because words are fine and it’s fine that we can find words for this too.

First published on forlagsliv.no Translated by Lucy Moffatt

Open Sesame: Brothers Al and Kas share a room and a computer. When big brother Kas has friends over, Al isn't allowed to hang out with them. But he can use the computer again after they've gone. And one day there is something on the screen that shouldn't have been there ...

Children are more vulnerable to sexual content online than ever before.

Very few parents enable filters on web searches at home, and today's children learn about pornography earlier than ever before.

«We need books about the dilemmas that the children meet.

That children’s books have a clear educational mission, like explaining pornography, is not a problem. The premise must be that the artistic level is high, as it is with Gro Dahle in books about topics like divorce, incest, violence and depression.»

DAGBLADET «Fairytale sex: What is so good about Open Sesame is that it does not leave the child alone with its questions, shame and disgust, nor with its curiosity, lust and the tingling feeling in the body. It lets things just be - and gives the child the opportunity to talk about something that is really hard and really weird.

In it‘s own way it sides wholeheartedly with the child. I warmly recommend it to both my prude and frivolous friends out there.»

AFTONBLADET Photo: Maja Hattvang

GRO DAHLE (1962–) writes for both children and adults. As a children’s book writer she is known for her poetic books on themes that are often given little attention.

Her poetry collections Riddles of Rain (Regnværsgåter) and A Hundred Thousand Hours (Hundre tusen timer) have solid places in the canon of modern Norwegian poetry. She has also published novels and short stories.

English title: Open Sesame Norwegian title: Sesam sesam Author: Gro Dahle PICTURE BOOK

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SOON YOU’LL BE SLEEPING Through dark, cold days spring sleeps beneath a quilt of frozen snow.

He breathes life into roots and seeds, and tiny things that grow.

The rooftops glint with crusted ice but he sleeps warm and sound.

Snug in his bed with catkins decked, and softest gosling down.

He dreams of bugs and ants and worms that creep out of the gloom .

Of larvae turned to butterflies and buds burst into bloom.

Of bees that flit from flower to flower and bike tyres flat as boards .

Of pallid knees and brooks that babble as the ice is thawed.

Spring will soon be waking now. See him stretch and bound and spring.

Vault cheerily from roof to roof as merry bluebells ring!

Winter first and then comes spring: That is always true.

In the springtime summer sleeps, Soon you’ll be sleeping too.

In springtime summer sleeps within a bud, a velvet nest .

Her pillow is a spider’s web, a summer treasure chest.

It glitters rich with rain on straw and golden honeydew.

With sandy beaches, berries sweet and resin drops to chew.

She dreams of blossoming beneath the sun’s majestic sight.

Of ladybirds that fly away home, countless gnats that bite.

Of kisses warm and rock pools, dust motes dancing in the sun .

Of thunderstorms and drying clothes and wreaths from flowers spun.

Summer soon will waken now. See how joyously she swings!

Up in the air, with flowers fair and softest butterfly wings.

Springtime first and then comes summer: That is always true.

In summertime the autumn sleeps, Soon you’ll be sleeping too.

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Through warm days autumn slumbers in an apple still unripe.

She sings and summons down the sun, draws out the soft, dark night.

Her hair’s a fiery sunset with both storm and silence filled.

Her clothes are scented apple sweet, her breath is earthy chill.

She dreams of shaking rain-drenched trees until the teardrops shower, Of frosty grass and chanterelles and rowan berries sour.

Of crisp clear air and songbirds speeding south in silent flight.

Of summer’s last befuddled wasp and itchy woollen tights.

Autumn soon will waken now, see her swoop across the town, A touch from her umbrella paints the leaves red, gold and brown.

Summer first and then comes autumn That is always true In the autumn winter sleeps Soon you’ll be sleeping too.

In the autumn winter sleeps wrapped in frost-browned leaves high piled.

She smiles, she knows she’ll soon conceal the gifts of summer mild.

And then you’ll stick your tongue right out to catch a snowy flake .

That tastes of ice and woollens with a hint of ginger cake.

And now she dreams of noses red and snow that fell last year .

Of lighted ski-tracks, hot mulled wine and hoof-prints left by deer.

Of Jack Frost on the window, of oats for magpie and tit.

Of tongues stuck fast to railings and of advent candles lit.

Winter soon will waken now, turn the world all grey and white, Peer down at us and whisper: “Keep each other warm tonight!”

Autumn first and then comes winter .

That is always true .

In the winter springtime sleeps .

Soon you’ll be sleeping too.

Translated by Lucy Moffatt

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Soon You´ll be Sleeping: Children sleep. Grown-ups sleep. Animals sleep. And the seasons of the year sleep too.

Sisters Haddy Njie and Lisa Aisato have long wanted to create a picture-book together. A goodnight book about the seasons of the year as they sleep and waken to life again. A goodnight book to read at bedtime, all year round.

«Turning the pages of this lovely book is like returning to childhood’s best and strongest children’s books memories ...

Through a combination of line drawing and watercolour, Lisa Aisato conjures up her characteristic pictures, with strong, evocative effects.»

DAGBLADET Photo: Cappelen Damm

HADDY NJIE (1979–) is an artist and a columnist, a singer, writer and a composer.

She is also a journalist and has been working in NRK as well as a freelancer for a number of newspapers and magazines.

LISA AISATO (1981–) is an author and artist, but also one of Norway's foremost illustrators. She has illustrated and written a number of books for children.

English title: Soon You´ll be Sleeping Norwegian title: Snart sover du Author: Haddy Njie & Lisa Aisato PICTURE BOOK

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Og, and, und, et, och …

VERONICA SALINAS (1977–) is a playwright and author. She was born in Argentina and has Spanish and Native American ancestry.

Photo: Kristin Aafløy Opdan

And: This is a plain and at the same time complex novel about identity and language. A novel with a different, painful and often humorous look at Norway and the people who live there, and a novel about the country left behind.

The first person narrator in this novel is going through an identity crisis. She is new in Norway, where she has come to work as an au pair. Her daily routine consists of work and language courses. She is very homesick for Argentina but she cannot go back.

I am from Argentina.

I speak Spanish.

I live in Fredrikstad now.

“Think about how you learned your native language,” says the teacher.

We imitate the sounds around us.

“Focus on pronunciation first,” she says.

I repeat all the sounds I hear.

I repeat the words inside me.

Over and over again.

Are you alright?

I have a mother and a father.

I have a sister.

I moved to Norway.

I work as an au pair.

I’m taking a Norwegian course.

There are a lot of other people like me here.

From Poland, Japan, Turkey and Pakistan.

I look at them, think Now I must say something But then I don’t say a word.

All my thoughts stop, And everything inside me is silent.

Now you must try and say something, I say to myself.

So I ask the girl called Monika: Are you alright?

“Nothing is easy,” says Monika.

The sound of the word “and” in Norwegian is easy: “og” I can say “og” without any difficulty.

But what can I use “og” for?

OG In Spanish “y”.

A conjunction consisting of two letters.

I must say “o” and then “g”.

OG There isn’t a lot I can say with “OG”. og og og I count the same steps og I count the others og I say that I am a foreigner og the others are too og I learn new words og I want to learn the words I will find most useful og og og

«And is written in simple language, with a novice’s typical addition of strange and uncommon words looked up in the dictionary. When someone is in the early stages of learning a language, they can end up unintentionally expressing themselves quite poetically.»

DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV

English title: And Norwegian title: Og - En argentinsk au pairs ordbok Author: Veronica Salinas FICTION

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Wild imagination AN INTERVIEW WITH BJØRN F. RØRVIK

Many children and adults love the books of Bjørn F. Rørvik. The books about Fox and Piglet, The Billy Goats Gruff, the master detective Purriot and his wild shenanigans have become huge favourite among the readers.

It’s been over 20 years since Fox and Piglet was launched, and in 2018 came book number 13.

How did that happen?

Yes, it’s very strange that it’s over 20 years since the first book, and Fox and Piglet haven’t gotten any older. Their mental development have perhaps varied a little from book to book, but they’re clearly still around first grade, I think.

What was the starting point for the series Fox and Piglet, where did the idea come from?

That’s something I can’t really give a proper answer to. I wanted to come up with some stories where I could decide everything myself. They had to be fun and entertaining, nothing to necessarily be learned from them, and with no clear moral. No pointing fingers or anything like that, because then it feels like your giving kids cod-liver oil with raspberry flavour.

They notice the bad taste anyway. But why it became Fox and Piglet, I can’t say, I didn´t have a list of different animals.

But you still ended up with a pretty wide variety of animals in the books, everything from radish-shark to owlfoulowl. And then there’s Bum-

bletroll. He is not an animal but a character. All these characters - where do they come from?

I definitely felt that it should be a universe that was rich enough not to finish it right away, and that there should be many characters you could get to know.

Not so many that it becomes confusing although that’s how life is for children and for adults too, pretty much. You have to deal with a lot of different things and you have to cope with it, right?

Did you start making up stories early?

Yes, I was very fond of making up stories even as a child. I was good at fantasizing, creating my own tales. If there was anything we lacked in the family, or something we couldn’t afford to buy, I had it in my imagination. I had everything there, trucks and stuff, biscuits, and whatever else I wanted.

I’ve always liked making up stories. I used to make things up for my little brother when we lay in our bunk beds at night. If he couldn’t sleep or was sad about something, I could make up a story. I think it was good training as a storyteller. Then I noticed that the story itself has its own energy, which you can immerse yourself in, and escape from everyday life. It’s an energy that helps you overcome things, it’s something in the narrative as such, it doesn’t have to deal with anything special, be problematic or discuss a theme. The story has its own power.

There must have been a few late nights then?

Yeah, there was.

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As far as Fox and Piglet are concerned, I also think that they’re children's books not written exclusively for children. As a parent, I’ve appreciated reading them because I think they’re extremely funny as well. Was this something you thought about when you wrote the books?

I’ve written with a reading-aloud audience in mind, it should be vocal and good to read aloud. Especially if you like making voices and are the sort of parent who think it’s fun to read aloud. I wanted to write something that you can play with. It doesn’t have to be simple words, for instance it can be owlfoulowl.

Not necessarily easy to read, but fun to say. You can have all sorts of nonsense. And then you can play around, as children do, until you make it your own.

Aha! When you write, is it as though you ‘hear’ Fox and you ‘hear’ Piglet, and how they speak?

Yes, it is. When you’re writing, you have to go in and become the character more or less while writing. If I write as Bumbletroll, I’d probably type a little harder on the keyboard. And I try out the retorts to see if they can be spoken, and sometimes I’ll scrap nice plot-twists and things that look good in writing if I feel that it doesn’t sound OK when I read it out loud.

Better with a good short quip, than an nice, elegant reply that doesn’t work verbally. One must be able to be all the characters while writing. You must read the script aloud to see if it rises from the page.

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FROM THE MOSQUITO SPRAY: The fox sat in peace and quiet solving a crossword when Piglet came tumbling down.

THERE’S A MOSQUITO BITING ME! cried Piglet.

YOU HAVE TO GO OUT AND PUNCH IT! Should I punch a mosquito? said the fox puzzled.

KNOCK HIM FLAT! screamed Piglet.

Piglet was so angry that Fox thought he really should investigate this matter.

Fox went out to the yard. He stood there for a while and looked around, but he couldn’t see any mosquitoes.

Piglet shouted from inside the den: HEEEELP! MY ARMS ARE TOO SHORT! What is it now? mumbled Fox hurrying back inside.

Piglet’s mosquito bite had started to itch. The mosquito had bitten him right in the middle of his back so that he couldn’t reach it with his trotters.

AAARRGH, IT’S DRIVING ME MAD! complained Piglet.

Fox had to help scratch.

Think about something else, suggested Fox. Maybe you can help me with my crossword?

Do you know a wild animal, with 9 letters?

MOSQUITO, said Piglet.

Not mosquito, said Fox The word begins with FFFF, and the next letter is probably an O. Fox, said Piglet.

That was easy. What could this be, a crossword for babies?

But Fox had already tried Fox, and Fox was too short.

He’d had to write it three times, Fox, fox, fox, and then it turned out to be wrong.

Foxmosquito then, suggested Piglet.

No, said Fox. It’s got nothing to do with mosquitoes.

Don’t think about mosquitoes.

But I am thinking about mosquitoes, said Piglet.

It’s been more than 20 years since you published Fox and Piglet and so much has happened since then – not least the fairytale success of the books about The Billy Goats Gruff.

I have to say it was a stroke of luck. Considering the illustrator and how the story came about, there were a lot of coincidences. We had no idea the story was so appealing when we finished it, we thought it was quite an ordinary book. But then it began to spread, trough the grapevine. Kindergarten parents and kindergarten staff at first. I think many people were happy to find a book that was just fun and had many layers and you understood that right away. There are many who know the book by heart.

The classic fairytale has a twist, by setting the story in a water park. Where did the idea come from?

It’s a place children can relate to, more so than to the classic mountain farm. There aren’t many children today, at least not small children, pre-school age, that know what a mountain farm is or how it was originally used, what it was for. If you ever find yourself at one, it’s probably only because they’re selling waffles. No other reason. Everyone can relate to water parks, and they contain all the elements you need for an exciting location for children. They know what it is. It’s great, and it’s very exciting. And the slide is both tempting and huge!

FROM THE BILLY GOATS GRUFF AND THE WATER PARK: Finally, The Billy Goats were ready for a bath. But they wanted to try the slide first.

It was even bigger than in the picture, with a long staircase leading to the top.

You first, little brother.

You can go first for a change.

No arguing, smallest first.

The Billy Goats were at the back of the queue.

Then they heard a huge clamour out in the reception.

Ouch! You have to pay, you HAVE TO pay!

Oooouch!

The door to the swimming pool was thrown open.

It was the troll!

Out of the way, here comes the BOMMMMB! What a troll-splash!

A family of mice was washed ashore.

Old reindeer entangled their horns with each other.

And a huge pike lay stunned in the shallows.

The troll stomped onwards into the toddler’s pool and sat on a beach ball.

I think I farted.

And after The Billy Goats, another character came along: Purriot. You’ve created a protagonist who is a classic detective - and a vegetable.

An entire universe of vegetables.

Yes, it ended up being a vegetable universe. It was also a bit random. It was probably just because of the name that it became vegetables. We wanted a name that played on good old Poirot, and the Norwegian word for leek ‘Purre’ and Purriot seemed like it might work. Then it turns out that Poirot does mean leek!

I didn’t actually know this because I can’t speak a word of French. But their word for leek, although it is spelled slightly differently to Poirot, is pronounced similarly. Purriot is perhaps aimed at a 57

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more experienced reader, without the reader necessarily having to be so much older. And Ragnar Aalbu’s illustrations are exquisite, he’s managed to give personalities to different types of vegetables.

Speaking of illustrations, I also thought about Per Dybvig’s illustrations for the books about Fox and Piglet, because you’ve been working with him since 1996, how has that been?

It’s been a dream to be able to work with such a top illustrator, who has such precision in the line. It’s not only that it looks a bit rough, but it’s incredibly precise, you see exactly what's going on inside the

head of the character, so it’s not that it’s ... it’s not just randomly done, but with a simple line, where he gets exactly the right expression.

He has this ease and spontaneity, which at the same time is so precise. It’s very well done. But we work very separately, so the text is finished before he gets the script. And then I don’t get in the way of what he draws, he has free rein to make whatever he wants out of it.

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Has it been like that since the start? Did you consider anyone else? Or did you see Per Dybvig's line and think: Yes! That’s it?

No, I didn’t do that. We sat in the editor’s office with the first script for the book called The Radish-Shark, and looked through various recently published books. We needed an illustrator that could draw foxes. So we flicked through some books, but no one had actually drawn a fox. But there was one illustrator who’d drawn a cat that was quite cool, and that was Per Dybvig. Surely he can draw foxes too, we thought, so we sent him the script and asked him to do some test sketches for us to consider, and they were just wonderful. Per Dybvig is probably an artist who doesn’t do too many sketches, he’s either on it right away or he throws it out if he doesn’t get it.

What we saw when he delivered the finished drawings didn’t look at all like the sketches. We got something completely different from what he had provided as sketches. It was a stroke of luck that it ended up being him. Because he fits the text so well, he lifts it all. He adds something to the characters.

Now it’s impossible to imagine Fox and Piglet without Per Dybvig. In the text there aren’t so many environmental descriptions, there’s a lot that’s not in the text but that’s been brought out by the drawings.

I write a lot of dialogue and some kind of slapstick humour and create a happening, whilst he com-

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pletes whatever’s missing. Even though he’s perhaps not very generous with backgrounds and surroundings and environments, but he does just enough for it to be there anyway. You get a sense of it.

Interview by Anette S. Garpestad for the Podcast Bokprat.

Translated by Matt Bagguley

Reynard´s Reveille – Piggy Post: New read-aloud gem about Fox and Piglet that is especially entertaining for children and adults with a sense of humor! In the thirteenth book about Fox and Piglet, the two friends decide to make a newspaper. But it is not that easy to find exciting news in the forest! A mouse who almost tripped isn't that fun to write about. And what will be on the front page? Luckily, the King of the Forest is coming to visit, and then things start to pick up.

Photo: June Witzøe

BJØRN F. RØRVIK (1964–). Since his first book in 1996, he has become one of the most successful and renowned childrens‘ books authors in Norway. His series about The Three Billy Goats Gruff (ill. Gry Moursund), Purriot (ill. Ragnar Aalbu) and Fox & Piglet (ill. Per Dybvig) has sold in hundreds of thousands of books in Norway alone. His writing is full of crazy humour and original concoctions that make them great fun for readers of all ages. Bjørn knows quite a lot about birds and animals, and enjoy travelling around Norway reading from his books.

English title: Reynard´s Reveille – Piggy Post Norwegian title: Reveljen-Griseposten Author: Bjørn F. Rørvik PICTURE BOOK

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The Festivals and Celebrations – Ours and Yours GUDNY INGEBJØRG HAGEN While working as a pre-school teacher in the 70s and 80s, I had minimal knowledge of how children with backgrounds from other countries, cultures and religions live with their families. When they came to nursery the day after a party or celebration, I knew very little, or nothing, about what they had experienced. For example, I could see the henna patterns on the girls’ hands, and could tell that they had stayed up late the night before. But since I knew nothing about what went on at their parties and celebrations, I knew that I was asking the children unqualified questions, which meant the answers I got in return were too; and I felt that my inexperience contributed to an unwanted and unnecessary gap between the child and myself, the child and the rest of the group, and between home and nursery. “Mind the gap!”

As usual, I tried turning to literature but there wasn’t a single Norwegian children's book or picture book that we could gather round and communicate with, a book which a child could hold up and say: “This is about me and my family, it’s almost the same, except we do this, or that!” The only exception was our protestant Christmas celebration, a 62

whole month in which we could fill with songs, literature, and solid, ingrained traditions.

After two decades as a writer of children’s books, and for children’s TV, I’d returned to pre-school teaching for a while. The bookshelf still lacked any illustrated children's books that informed or confirmed the family traditions of children who had backgrounds other than Norwegian. Even though I knew more now than I did in the 70s, I still asked myself the question: How do Muslim families really

celebrate Eid, what do the children learn, and what is most important to them? What about the children in Jewish families, in Buddhist, Hindu, and Catholic ones? In all my ignorance, I decided to write the missing books myself, and that they would be in the form of non-fiction. I didn’t know where to start, but chose to begin with something positive and recognizable: Parties and celebrations.

In other words, the book-series didn’t come about because I knew so much about other cultures – but 63

for the opposite reason. Most of these festivals are based on religious stories, and as teachers in schools and nurseries we need to have some basic knowledge so that we know the difference between informing and preaching. It can be difficult to know what one can – and should – inform children about.

I got in touch with different reference families, interviewed them many times; and I took part in their parties and allowed them to read the stories I’d created based on what I had experienced and perceived.

In addition, I collaborated with a religious studies expert and college principal, who wrote the additional guidelines booklet Good Explaining. According to Norway’s current regulations, the five books can be read and explained in nurseries and schools as in recognition of a festivity, without crossing the boundaries regarding preaching.

I’ve chosen to portray a small, compact community, some buildings and streets, where the main characters and their families live their lives, side by side;

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with each book depicting one celebration. Both my publisher and I searched long and hard for an illustrator who could depict the festivals and celebrations documentarily, colourfully and fairy talelike. I’m extremely happy with the valuable work Malgorzata Piotrowska has done to make the texts and images complement each other.

Since the books came out I’ve participated in groups and courses with teachers who confirm that they too know very little about the traditions of their different children and I’ve been invited to read the books aloud. Naturally, it makes me very happy that the stories are seen as authentic within the different communities.

I hope that the books will keep bringing inspiration and joy to both large and small.

Translated by Matt Bagguley

Photo: June Witzøe

GUDNY INGEBJØRG HAGEN (1954–) has written screenplays for a number of children’s television series for NRK. She is responsible for writing all the books, screenplays, and theatre and film scripts for the very popular Jul i Blåfjell, Jul på Månetoppen and Julenatt i Blåfjell. In 2016 she won the Brage Prize for her books in the series Parties and Celebrations.

English title for the series: Parties and Celebrations Norwegian title: Fest og feiring Author: Gudny Ingebjørg Hagen NON-FICTION

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Those Who Don’t Exist SIMON STRANGER

It's an afternoon in August, in Oslo, and I'm sitting at the bus stop with my son while the motorway traffic goes by. His hand in mine. We talk about summer school. About what we’re going to do after dinner. The bus stop is full of people on their way from work, on their way to the kindergarten, or the gym. Then along comes someone who stands out. A man in a ragged suit, carrying two plastic bags full of empty bottles in one hand. His other hand rummages around in a garbage bin. He searches quickly through the paper and napkins covered in leftovers of melted ice-cream and chocolate. He is less than a meter from us. My son has stopped talking. He watches the man for a few seconds, before pulling my arm to get closer.

– Is that who you wrote about, daddy? he whispers. I shake my head. It’s not him, but it could have been. One of the paperless. Those Who Don’t Exist. According to the Norwegian Immigration Department, there are somewhere between 10.000-30.000 paperless refugees in Norway. Most come from countries like Iran, Afghanistan, DR Congo and the various Palestinian areas.

My son has stopped talking. He watches the man for a few seconds, before pulling my arm to get closer.

The same countries which the Police Immigration Unit say are difficult to deport people to. Many of them are people fleeing war, poverty or an absence

of any future. Some of them survive by enduring serious exploitation in the labour market, with wages as low as 2 euro an hour and wretched living conditions alongside many others at their workplace.

Many people earn money by selling sex, either by prostitution or by living with someone who expects sexual favours. Many of the paperless are also homeless and spend most of the time outdoors. Some earn most of their money from bottle deposits, like the man in the suit, on this August afternoon, by Motorway 3.

For those who don’t have a passport or social security number, even a simple illness can be catastrophic.

For everyone else at the bus stop there are systems ready to catch them if they fall. An invisible safety net, spun around everyday Scandinavian life. If you break your arm, there’s a hospital you can go to. If you lose your job, there’s unemployment benefit. If you’re a victim of abuse, violence or threats, there are laws that will ensure that society finds and punishes those who have committed the offense. All of this is available for those of us with a valid passport. For those who don’t have a passport or social security number, even a simple illness can be catastrophic. How can you plaster your leg in you don´t exist. How can you get medication for pneumonia if you don’t live in the country? How can you report abuse and threats when the very same service that should protect you, also has the task of finding you, and deporting you?

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The man in the suit returns the piles of soft-drink cups and hamburger leftovers unbothered by us sitting or standing there at the bus stop beside him, watching him. Perhaps they’re thinking the same thing as me: that these roles could be reversed. That in other conditions, other historical circumstances, any one of us could be him. A hundred years ago, Norwegians were sitting in boats heading for America, hoping for a better life. Today it’s young West Africans setting off in overcrowded boats, on the open sea. 70 years ago, Norwegians fled from occupation.

Today, it’s refugees from Eritrea who are drowning on their way to Europe. Today there are young men from Afghanistan crossing the border while hunched up in lorries or by walking over the mountains, and who end up lying frozen stiff, like statues, in remote mountain passes.

Some get to stay in Norway – many don’t. Why don’t they just go back? In a survey on violence and traumatic stress from the National Knowledge Centre, it appears that the majority of those who come to Norway and apply for asylum have been victims of death-threats, torture or rape. For many of the paperless, the situation they come from is so difficult, so brutal and dangerous that they prefer an existence in the shadows. A life as someone invisible, illegal, without rights, without residence, without the opportunity to have a family. A life without a future.

Some get to stay in Norway – many don’t.

What is our responsibility? In January 2015, the BBC wrote about how foreign trawlers have destroyed the livelihoods of an entire generation of fishermen on the west coast of Africa and the domino effect it 68

has led to. When the first branch collapses – the fishing industry – so do the industries around it: those who have worked with shipping; those who have worked to make the refrigeration boxes; those who sell the fish on wards. Many young people, dreaming of a better life, stand on the beaches and look out at the ocean knowing that there are opportunities on the other side. Places where it’s possible to find a job.

A life. A future. Many of them never make it. Every year thousands of young men and women die trying to reach a better life. For many of those who do make it, their dreams end up crushed. They are gathered in refugee camps, behind barbed wire, outside the tourist zone, and sent back again.

Places where it’s possible to find a job.

A life. A future. Many of them never make it.

Norway is way up north, and due to international agreements, asylum seekers are returned to the Schengen-area country in which they were first registered. To Greece, Spain, Italy. To countries with far weaker economies and far more refugees. The mayor of the Italian island of Lampedusa is right when he says they don’t have the capacity; that this is a common European problem, not just an Italian one. What can we do? I don’t know, but the Norwegian Progress Party’s suggestion of banning all medical assistance to paperless refugees, including emergency assistance, is a dangerous step towards dehumanization; and is quite possibly in violation of international law. How poor must we become first?

How heartless must we be against those born in the wrong place, at the wrong time? Is it right to deport young Afghan boys on the very day they turn 18, simply because we can send them to a different city to

the one where they received the death threats, and can of course survive on the streets? These people. They are us.

This man in the suit. It could be him sitting here instead, with his son beside him. A ten year old hand in his. With dinner plans.

Talking about a new book about animals.

How heartless must we be against those born in the wrong place, at the wrong time?

Those Who Don’t Exist: Paperless people – people who don’t exist – live everywhere. 21-year-old Samuel from Ghana knows what it means to sacrifice everything in the hope of a new and better life in Europe. He did it before, when he fled to Gran Canaria.

A Norwegian girl called Emilie tried to help him that time. In the end he was discovered and deported anyway. The last thing Samuel received from Emilie was a piece of paper with her address on it. He is now standing outside her house in Bærum, with experiences behind him that no one in this foreign country could start to comprehend.

The book was nominated for The Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2015.

The man walks straight into the road, between the cars waiting at a red light, with his white plastic bags full of bottles in one hand. He begins rummaging through the garbage bin on the other side of the street, and I just catch a glimpse of him pulling out a Perrier bottle, before our bus arrives and I lead my son on board. I watch the man emptying the bottle on the grass before putting it into one of his bags. And off we drive. Away, away, away.

First published on forlagsliv.no Translation by Matt Bagguley

«The way Stranger sheds light on the truth we would rather avoid is like a slap in the face […] The meeting between Samuel and Emilie after three years is also very well depicted. […] Stranger has written an exceptional novel and perhaps the most important young adult novel of our time. Those Who Don’t Exist should have pride of place in all Norwegian bookcases.»

VÅRT LAND SIMON STRANGER (1976–) made his literary debut as a children’s author in 2005. In 2006 he was awarded Riksmålsprisen for the book Gjengangeren. Stranger has written number of critically acclaimed novels for adults, as well as his equally acclaimed young adult fiction trilogy Barsakh, The World Liberators (Verdensredderne) and Those Who Don´t Exist (De som ikke eksisterer).

English title: Those Who Don’t Exist Norwegian title: De som ikke finnes Author: Simon Stranger FICTION

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Norwegian Oscar Winner with new Masterpiece: Threads

Oscar Winner Torill Kove´s Threads is a beautiful story about attachment, care and separation shown through the love between mother and child. The story is depicted both through book form and a nanimated film, the latter longlisted for an Oscar!

Attachment and love Torill Kove's book Threads is – like the film of the same name – an unusually beautiful story of attachment and love. On its deepest level, Threads is a story about love. It is intended as a symbolic portrayal of the connection between parents and children. The woman in the story leaps up after a thread. The thread leads her to a child. What the other people find, each hanging to their own threads, we don’t know, but the story opens up for the idea that there are many different ways to experience attachment. The story is loosely connected to Maslow's theory about human needs, described as a pyramid (1943); a theory that

begins with basic physical needs, then security, social needs, self-esteem and self-realization.

About the story Torill Kove has this to say about the story depicted in the film and the book Threads: «A woman is lifted up and away by a red thread, landing somewhere far from home. The thread leads her to a little child sitting alone in a deserted area. The child, who holds the other end of the thread, is anxious and shy. After a while, the woman raises the child and they are bound together by this thread and also protected within the frame of a flexible bubble that has formed around them. We follow the two of them through the child’s upbringing and recognizable milestones, such as learning to walk, playing, become more independent, mastering challenges and making friends. Eventually, the thread is loosened and the child leaves the bubble.»

First published on forlagsliv.no Translated by Matt Bagguley

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Threads: Threads is based on Torill Kove's latest animated film of the same name. A red thread lifts a woman up and leads her to a small child.

The child is anxious and doesn't like to be touched, but eventually the two are tied together. We follow them through the child's upbringing – until the thread loosens and the child goes its own way.

A poignant and touching story about love and attachment, told almost without a single word.

The red thread of love «… She lets the thread that binds them together become longer and longer, and the bubble that surround them become bigger and bigger, before the daughter eventually breaks the bubble and severs the thread. Then something happens! The read thread becomes a small red tussle inside the both of them. A heart symbolizing the love and safe feeling they both carry with them onwards.

A beautiful picture - striking and instantly understandable for both children and adults. Here Kove creates her own very original metaphor.»

DAGBLADET «Is this a story about adoption? Possibly. But the insight that is conveyed is valid in any safe relationship between children and adults. That people who love each other are bound together by threads is a beautiful and precise picture of our dependence in each other and our need to be loved and cared for.»

VG Photo: Ida Meyn

TORILL KOVE (1958–) has written and illustrated several childrens books based on her animated films. The animated short story The Danish Poet (Den danske dikteren) won an Oscar in 2007, and she was again nominated for an Oscar for the aminated short Moulton and me (Moulton og meg). She has also illustrated the Johannes Jensen books, and directed the animated film Hokus Pokus Alfons Åberg (sv.). Torill Kove lives in Canada.

English title: Threads Norwegian title: Tråder Author: Torill Kove PICTURE BOOK

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Big city holiday with children – and Clara Author Ingeborg Dybvig has written five books about thirteen-year-old Clara, who always gets involved in various mysteries and crimes on her travels.

In her latest book, Stalked in London, Clara is on vacation with Grandma and Grandpa in England – this time with her best friend Emilie. When Grandma breaks her leg, the girls most willingly go to London alone. They’re just going to go shopping on Oxford Street ...

Literary journeys have become a new way of travelling, with readers following in authors’ and characters’ footsteps across the world. But what about children? It can sometimes be difficult to find things to do in big cities that are fun for the whole family.

So why not turn to books for inspiration?

VENICE 1. Buy a mask 2. Count lions 3. Swim in Lido

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Ingeborg Dybvig has written five exciting and action-filled books about thirteen-year-old Clara, who visits various cities with her father. Clara gets mixed up in mystical incidents and crimes in each city she visits, but the reader doesn’t have to do that themselves! We follow Clara’s footsteps around Venice, Cambridge, Stockholm, Paris and London.

Ingeborg primarily wants to tell a fun and exciting story, but she also wants to spread the joy of visiting new places and experiencing new things. Each book therefore ends with a list of interesting facts about the city we’re visiting, a small glossary, and best of all: A list of ten things you can do when you’re there (and they’re usually things other than what’s at the top of tourist guides).

CAMBRIDGE 1. Go punting 2. Visit a college 3. Go to the labyrinth in Saffron Walden

STOCKHOLM 1. Visit the Nobel Museum in Gamla Stan 2. Climb up the tower in Stockholm’s Stadhus 3. Take a boat ride in Stockholm’s archipelago

Stalked in London: It is Easter holiday, and Clara is back at her grandparents place in England, this time with her friend Emilie. When her grandmother breaks her leg, the girls are allowed to go into London on their own. They are after all just going to do some shopping on Oxford Street. But then they see a man getting beaten down, and when they try to help him he passes them a small square item and whispers: "Don´t go to the Police".

So if you are going on a big city holiday this summer, it could be smart to bring along a book for the kids. Read a good story and get fun travel tips to boot!

Have a nice trip – and enjoy the books!

Clara has promised everyone that she no longer will be playing detective, so the girls hurry back to the train station. But it is not their fault that they are followed...

Thirteen year old Clara has a tendency to get herself tangled up in mysteries and crime, and the prize winning series about her has an enthusiastic following of young readers.

Translated by Olivia Lasky

INGEBORG DYBVIG (1961–) is a journalist and a writer. She has written five books in the Clara series, and won the Boksluker Award 2016 for the fifth volume in the series, Stalked in London (Forfulgt i London)

PARIS 1. Visit Edgar Dégas’ Little Dancer sculpture in the Musée d’Orsay 2. Visit Victor Hugo’s house in Place de Vosges 3. Visit Napoleon in Les Invalides

LONDON 1. Go horseback riding in Hyde Park 2. S tep on the Meridian Line 3. Walk up the 334 steps to the top of Big Ben

English title: Stalked in London Norwegian title: Forfulgt i London Author: Ingeborg Dybvig FICTION

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Mulysses - An epic comic book story ØYVIND TORSETER ABOUT MULYSSES

In Mulysses we once again meet the character Mule-boy. This time on his way out to sea. The author and illustrator Øyvind Torseter tells us about the book and his thoughts about the Mule-boy-universe.

Mulysses – my own story The previous book about Mule-boy was loosely based on the fairy tale The Troll with No Heart in his Body. Mulysses however is slightly different. It’s my own story, about a journey to sea.

The story begins with the protagonist Mule-boy losing his job and his apartment. Down at the harbour Mule-boy meets an eccentric captain who persuades him to embark on a dangerous sea voyage in search of the world's largest island.

Mule-boy is a somewhat reluctant first-time sailor.

A journey to the sea I actually grew up inland, at a place called Mjøsa, so I have pretty limited experience with the sea. Fortunately, so have the main characters in the book.

Mule-boy is a somewhat reluctant first-time sailor.

The captain suffers from an exaggerated belief in his own sailing skills, and an imaginary bout of scurvy.

Other characters you’ll find in the story are a monster, a blind passenger with an interest in lemons, and a fish in a sweater.

New ideas In the final phase of a new book project, new ideas will often emerge. It’s tempting to try and squeeze these into the almost finished book somehow. But usually they’re the start of a new and completely different story. A new book!

I did several drawings. First the harbour and the surrounding area.

Old drawings can create new books My style of working means that I end up with many leftover drawings from my books. I work collage style. I lay out the drawings, cut and paste, and put it together. The leftovers ends up in the drawing box.

It helps keeping these drawings stored in a box for a few years. Once they’re forgotten about, I can look at them again. One of the leftover drawings from my book Connections (2013) was the start of Mulysses. I found it one day and became curious: Why does Mule-boy wear a yellow coat? What are the small guinea pig-like animals? Why is he on board something that resembles a fishing boat?

What would it be like to send Mule-boy to sea? It could be exciting to draw.

Uses what’s familiar as the starting point for improvisation I did several drawings. First the harbour and the surrounding area. An environment to place the characters in. Then I added the sea, the boats, and 77

desert islands. All from memory, I don’t use any particular reference points, so it ends up being a loose mix of things I've seen, read, heard or made up. I also borrow elements from myths and fairy tales. I use what’s familiar as the starting point for improvisation. I don’t make realistic books. But there has to be some logic to it. It has to be a world of its own, but credible.

Mule-boy has been around for a long time Mule-boy is one of several characters that has been around for a long time. They all pop up occasionally, and are interesting to draw, over and over again. Like actors that I can place in different environments and trigger an event.

The storyboard provides an overview During the work process, I’ll have to assemble all my drawings and create some sort of structure. A storyboard will provide me with an overview. Then the words follow, and the characters begin to talk to each other. The words sometimes come to me while I’m doing other things, so it’s important to write them down immediately. Much of it is unusable, but it’s easier to judge when it’s down on paper.

An idea might seem too stupid when you’re just thinking it, but can work fine when it becomes text or a drawing.

A story that alternates between visual and textual expressions In Mulysses I’ve combined full-pages in colour, and fourframed cartoon-strips in black and white. The cartoon-strips tie the whole page together.

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The text is placed in speech bubbles along with some narrative text, which is a method that works very well for me. The environments, depictions and much of the story are in the drawings. At the same time, the drawings and the text are dependent on each other in order to tell the story. They belong together.

Mulysses: Mule-Boy goes to sea. And his travels go about as well as they do for many other boys on their first journey: poverty forces him on a dangerous trip with an eccentric adventurer who is searching for the eye of a sea monster. We follow Mule-Boy's dangerous journey through the comic book format. We take part in the emotional gusts he undergoes – far from home, dealing with an unpredictable captain and developing strong feelings for a blind passenger.

First published on forlagsliv.no Translation by Matt Bagguley

Photo: Cappelen Damm

ØYVIND TORSETER (1972–) is a well known illustrator and author who has produced books such as Detours (Avstikkere), The Hole (Hullet) and Mule-Boy (Mulegutten).

He has won a number of Norwegian and international prizes. For Detours he was awarded The Year’s Most Beautiful Book Prize and the most distinguished honour for children’s books, The Bologna Ragazzi Award. The Hole earned him the prestigious French Prix Jeune Alber, and also won him the Norwegian prize for The Year’s Most Beautiful Book in 2013. Mule-Boy was nominated to the Nordic Councils Childrens‘ Book Prize in 2016.

English title: Mulysses Norwegian title: Mulysses Author: Øyvind Torseter GRAPHIC FICTION

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Plastic Waste in the Sea WRITTEN BY GEIR WING GABRIELSEN

Over the last decade, there have been several reports showing that plastic pollution in the oceans is increasing and that plastics are damaging more and more species of animals. In 2015, world production of plastic was about 325 million tons.

By 2050, the total production of plastic will increase three to four times. Unless measures are taken to reduce plastic pollution of the ocean – in thirty years time the marine environment will contain more plastic than fish.

I have researched the Arctic since the beginning of the 1980s. My studies have been aimed towards the study of behaviour, ecology, physiology and toxicology of Arctic seabirds. For the last 10-15 years, I have worked a lot with the effects of pollutants on animal species in the Arctic. During my time on Svalbard I have seen an increase in the plastic problem in the ocean. This is linked to an increased amount of plastic on the beaches and on the seabed on and near Svalbard. Through my research on seabirds, I have registered that they too are affected by plastic floating in the oceans. When we examined 40 Northern Fulmar birds on Svalbard in the early 1980s, we recorded pieces of plastic in the stomachs of 3-4 of them. When we did a new survey of 40 of these birds in 2013, only 4 of them had no plastic in their stomachs. In some of them we found more than 200 pieces of plastic.

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In order to focus attention on the plastic problem in the oceans, Kirsti Blom and I wrote the book Plastic Waste in the Sea. The target audience for the book is people aged 5 to 90, but the book is particularly suitable for school children. The main character of the book is the Northern Fulmar which is a long-lived seabird - it can reach the age 70 years! On Svalbard it builds its nests on cliff shelves along the coast. The bird gets its nutrition from eating organisms found on the sea surface and most likely eats the plastic because it smells or tastes like plankton, and plastic attracts substances found in plankton.

Through pictures and illustrations we tell the story of the Northern Fulmar’s life in the Arctic. The book talks about different types and sizes of plastic; who is putting this plastic in the sea; how long it takes to break down plastic, as well as get into how animals are affected by the plastic they get caught in or eat.

The book also contains information on the world’s oceanic garbage patches and explains how plastic breaks down to micro- and nanoplastics. Towards the end of the book, we say something about what can be done to rid beaches and the sea of garbage, and what we as individuals can do to reduce the use of plastic in everyday life – and hopefully this might inspire more people to make a bigger effort to cut the use of plastic.

Plastic Waste in the Sea: Researchers think that there are around 100 million tons of plastic floating around in the sea. This waste is carried away by the ocean currents and distributed over the planet. In thirty years, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea if we carry on dumping at the same rate as we are now. What can we do?

In Plastic Waste in the Sea, Gabrielsen and Blom teach children and adults alike about the repercussions of plastic pollution.

«This is an important book for us and for the coming generations.

A beautiful and informative book for young and old.»

BYAVISA DRAMMEN

Photo: Johanna Blom / Ingrid Gabrielsen

KIRSTI BLOM (1953–) is first and foremost a writer of fiction, but she also publishes non-fiction for children.

GEIR WING GABRIELSEN: is a researcher and biologist, and the head of the section conducting research into environmental pollution at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. He is also a UN representative (UNEP) in the area of marine litter.

English title: Plastic Waste in the Sea Norwegian title: Søppelplasten i havet Author: Kirsti Blom & Geir Wing Gabrielsen NON-FICTION

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Hannemone and Hulda JENNY JORDAHL

– Where in the world will I find love?

Hulda wondered.

Writing about gay love for children Jenny Jordahl's colorful debut book asks the eternal questions in a funny and smart way.

Hannemone and Hulda is almost like a fable.

Hannemone being a mermaid and Hulda a wood nymph. How did you get the idea for the story and the characters?

In this book we meet Hannemone and Hulda, who are a mermaid and a wood nymph respectively, and who live with other mermaids and wood nymphs.

One in the forest – the other in the sea. Once a year a party is thrown and everyone is expected to find themselves a spouse. Wood nymphs can choose between carpenters and woodsmen. For mermaids, only sailors will do. Neither Hannemone nor Hulda find anyone suitable, until they find each other ...

This may not be a surprise, but I am very concerned with women and gender topics. So it was obvious to me that the book had to contain cool and funny ladies in some form or another. When I was a child, I was really fascinated by mermaids, and nymphs: Mythical women luring men into the depths of the underworld.

This may not be a surprise, but I am very concerned with women and gender topics.

A wonderful debut You’ve won an award, together with Marta Breen, for the joint book project The F-word, and you’ve received a lot of attention for your comics and various illustration projects. How does it feel to publish your own picture book?

It’s really great! When I was a student, before The F-word and the other projects, I had a kind of goal in life to make a children's book – preferably a fairytale. I really love fables and myths. So it feels great to have done it.

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As an adult, this fascination has become more of an irritation at these beautiful temptresses who do nothing but attract men. They’re quite one-sided. It made my thoughts turn because gay mermaids surely exist. And maybe mermaids and nymphs look just as different as all species, in the sea and in the forest?

How do they behave? How do they behave towards each other? So I decided to make a whole new and, in my opinion, far more realistic representation of mermaids and nymphs. And in my story, they’re not so nasty that they lure men to certain death.

From non-fiction, and comic-strips, to fiction This book represents a genre shift for you. How has that been?

It’s been both fun and challenging. In the past, I’ve worked a lot with non-fiction in the form of comics, shorter autobiographical series and funny cartoon strips, so this has been a completely different un-

dertaking. To write exclusively from imagination is a new thing for me. It’s been exciting to be free of reality’s limitations, and instead create a story where I’m free to say what I want. But then with so many possibilities it's also difficult to limit yourself. I could have written a whole novel about Hannemone and Hulda.

At its core, this story is about finding love on your own terms.

A book about love and diversity At its core, this story is about finding love on your own terms and being faithful to your own orientation. Can you say something about that?

When I got the idea about a siren and a mermaid who fall in love, I asked around the gay scene about what kind of gay literature there was out there for children and youths. And I heard that there was relatively little. It's a real shame, because literature should reflect society’s enormous diversity. I also got the impression that most of these stories were about facing opposition. I wanted my story to be a positive one about gay love. I wanted it to be a book that makes you happy. I think that the book is basically about diversity. All the characters in it are completely different and that’s what they value most of all.

You found that there are hardly any children's books that address homosexuality, or specifically two girls who fall in love with each other. In the book they are depicted as a mermaid and a siren.

Why did you choose to “camouflage” them in this way?

The idea was to create a new twist on old myths, mermaids, and sirens, and there has to be mermaids and sirens with different sexual orientations.

There are hidden rules for what’s "normal." It’s still expected that everyone is heterosexual.

Equality acceptance and prejudice Many people like to believe that equality and the acceptance of different sexual orientations is a matter of fact these days. What do you think about that?

It's like you say: we like to believe it. It would have been so nice if everyone reacted like Jonas in Shame when Isaac came out. He is only concerned about his friend, not his sexual orientation. Whether he likes boys or girls isn’t important. But it's not always like that unfortunately. For example, it’s not many years ago that gender-based marriage was forbidden in Norway. "Homo" is still a frequently used

derogatory word. There are still many people who feel shame or uncertainty about their own sexual orientation, and for many it’s difficult to step forward. It's about fear of how others will react. The hetero-norm is alive and well. There are hidden rules for what’s "normal". It’s still expected that everyone is heterosexual. And if you break these rules, you’ll often get a reaction and have to explain yourself. So even though knowledge and understanding has increased – and it's easier to be gay today than before – we still have a long way to go.

Would like greater variation in literature for children about diversity in all areas What do you think about the way adults inform children on the variations in gender identity and sexual orientation?

I would like to see a greater variation in children's and youth literature in all areas. Background, orientation, gender, skin color ... Everything!

Most of today’s stories for children and adolescents, are about people who are quite similar. They’re heterosexual, white, cis, have almost the same type of background, and behave more or less the same. This also applies to other literature as well. Films and TV are no better. I think it's important to inform children that there’s far more diversity than that, in order to create acceptance and understanding early on. It’s important that we adult writers make an effort to tell diverse stories. The nicest thing would be if gay books were an entirely natural part of the reading spectrum for children.

Is that where your book would come in? As a form of public education for children?

I hope that Hannemone and Hulda can make chil-

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dren a little more conscious. But my book tells only one story, it doesn’t embrace everything. There are many other stories that need telling, if we’re to cover everything.

About cooperating with yourself Since you’re both an author and illustrator, you’re what we call a "multi-talent." It’s a highly envied position to many of us. Can you talk a little about what it’s like to "cooperate" with yourself, on text and images?

Well I don’t always agree with myself. I’m fond of playing with words and phrasing, so I often find myself torn, and end up writing quite slowly. At the same time, I want the illustrations to do a lot of the storytelling on their own, so I don’t actually need that much text. My writing side and my drawing side fought for attention a little. But they agreed in the end. I think the book ended up with a pretty nice balance between text and illustration.

I don’t always agree with myself.

Literary role models Norwegian picture books are highly regarded.

Many of them have won awards both at home and abroad. Are any of them role models for you?

I haven’t read an awful lot of picture books, but I do try to stay informed about what Inga Sætre, Lene Ask, Anna Fiske and Kaia Dahle Nyhus are doing. They’re just brilliant. I’m also very fond of Tore Hansen's style, he wrote one of my favorite books The House on the Scarlet Plain. But my biggest inspiration is probably Tove Jansson and the whole Moomin universe.

Hannemone and Hulda: Hulda is a wood nymph and Hannemone is a mermaid. One lives in the forest and one in the sea. Once a year, they set a table for a party where they plan to find a husband. For wood nymphs, these are timbermen. For mermaids, it's sailors. But neither Hulda nor Hannemone can find someone suitable. Their desire for adventure is undeniable and they go out into the world where they find each other.

With colorful and flowery lines, Jenny Jordahl's debut book tells the story of how finding love is possible when you dare be true to yourself.

The stories are so cozy, creepy, serious, weird and beautiful all at once – full of life lessons.

Expectations and future plans What expectations do you have for the future of your book?

The truth is I just don’t dare to think about it. But I hope that it’s a book that makes people happy! And I hope it gives parents and children an opportunity to talk about love and attraction.

First published on forlagsliv.no Translation by Matt Bagguley

Photo: Vidar Schiefloe

JENNY JORDAHL (1989-) is an illustrator, designer, blogger and cartoonist. She is well known for her collaborations with feminist writer Marta Breen on books like The F Word and 60 Women You Should've Met. The F Word was awarded the Culture Department's Textbook Award in 2015. She illustrates a regular environmental column for Aftenposten Junior and does her own cartoon series: Life among the animals.

The picture book Hannemone and Hulda is her debut as a writer.

English title: Hannemone and Hulda Norwegian title: Hannemone og Hulda Author: Jenny Jordahl PICTURE BOOK

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The One called Sister EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

1 Some doors are open.

Some are closed.

The door on the opposite side of mine is closed.

That’s the door to the one who is called sister.

She has lived there as long as I can remember.

I know that door very well.

It is always closed.

2 Every day I am waiting for her in the bathroom.

Maybe we can brush our teeth together?

Maybe we can look at each other in the mirror?

But she has to use the toilet.

Then I have to leave.

I don’t know why she is in there so long.

I don’ know what she is dreaming about when she’s asleep.

I don’t know what she is thinking.

I don’t know what she’s doing inside her room.

I don’t know why she has to have her door shut.

3 The one called sister doesn’t have the same face as me.

We don’t look alike at all.

She hardly ever smiles, certainly not to me.

And she never ever lets me inside her room.

I’m not even sure whether the girl in the room opposite me, Is my real sister or not.

Maybe she is just cheating.

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The One called Sister: How does it feel when your big sister doesn't feel like a sister but might just as well be anybody at all?

4 I know just how a sister should be.

Sisters are supposed to share secrets and popcorn.

Sisters are supposed to tickle each other until they pee their pants.

And have pyjama parties.

And spitting competitions from the bridge.

And maybe tell each other secrets, maybe tell about being in love and stuff.

But my sister is not like that.

Big sister, who is always cross and shuts the door to her room. Big sister, who never wants to play, never likes the same things. Big sister, who can't be bothered to babysit unless mom and dad pay her for it.

5 The one called sister doesn’t want to play with cars and not with dolls either.

She doesn’t want to play family.

And she doesn’t want to look after me, Not even when dad and mom ask her to.

They have to pay her for it.

And still she is sour.

Once in a while I wish I had another sister One who likes the same things I do.

One who likes me.

Translated by Gro Dahle

Photo: Cappelen Damm

KAIA DAHLE NYHUS (1990–) studied Visual Communication at the National Academy of Arts in Oslo, and also studied illustration at the Luzern College in Switzerland.

Her book The One called Sister has been chosen as a White Raven for 2017.

Nominated to The Cultural Ministry Prize 2017.

English title: The One called Sister Norwegian title: Hun som kalles søster Author: Kaia Dahle Nyhus PICTURE BOOK

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When Linde met Linde LINDE HAGERUP ABOUT WRITING ONE BROTHER TOO MANY It only takes a moment to be a child.

The rest of your life, you’re an adult.

But you’re always – always – a person.

However, it’s not the readers out there who scare me the most. I do that to myself. Linde, age nine. The critic from hell.

I’ve read a lot of wonderful things, but nothing has ever been as great as what I read as a child – perhaps because it was fresh and new, and all books were beginnings. Perhaps because the critic in me got free rein to be completely merciless if the text didn’t work. A bad, or even worse – boring – book could just scram; I was indifferent. That poor, dull book never got my attention again.

I think it’s a bit scary to write for children. In fact, it scares me to death.

Good children’s books One of the privileges I had as a child was that my mother was a librarian – a dedicated woman who was always reading. Someone who got excited about good books practically all the time.

And she dragged absolutely everything between heaven and earth home from the library. Among everything that was boring, we also read a lot of good books.

It’s true that on the other end of the spectrum from the deathly boring children’s book, we have the incredibly fantastic children’s book. The book you never forget. The one you carry with you for the rest of your life. The one you give to your children, and to your grandchildren. The book you read over and over again.

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However, it isn’t the readers out there who scare me the most.

I do that to myself.

Linde, age nine.

The critic from hell.

Disagreements Nevertheless, I took a chance last year and started writing a novel for children. Nine-year-old Linde was rather skeptical. She crossed her arms and looked up at me, creasing her forehead.

“I don’t think you’ll be that good at it,” she said.

“Relax!” I said. “It’s just a book. The worst that can happen is that it’s bad, and then I can just throw it out.”

“But you don’t know anything about children or how a good book should be,” said little Linde. “You have absolutely no clue.”

“You don’t know anything about that,” I said. I felt like I was starting to get grumpy at this precocious creature. “Just let me work in peace. I have a plan, okay?”

“Of course you have a plan,” she said. “I know you. I know how you are.”

Then she turned and left.

I peered after nine-year-old Linde, trying to understand what she’d said.

What did she know about 47-year-old Linde that I didn’t?

faced. A loss, a pain that struck a whole family.

What was nine-year-old Linde talking about? What did she mean about me not having any clue?

I clearly had a clue. Silly little girl.

Two pages. Five pages.

Without direction I started writing. And just like I always do: at random. Straight into Lalaland. Pottered about without having any idea where I was going.

I started typing: First one letter. Then an other. Then a sentence. Two sentences. Ten. A page.

Tralala.

It was about nine-year-old Sara, and a crisis she

An uninvited little boy Then suddenly, a new character showed up in the text – Steinar, age five. A boy I’d had no idea would be a part of the book. But he showed up and turned the text in a completely different direction. He made everything impossible. And what’s more – I felt sorry for him.

It isn’t a particularly good sign when you start feeling sorry for your characters. When you get a lump in your throat, and want to save them.

I glanced over at little Linde. She stood in the corner, staring in another direction and pretending that she was entirely uninterested in what I was doing. She was even whistling, just to be safe. As though to convince me of how lost I was.

Well, I thought. Is that how it’s going to be now?

Fine!

I kept writing.

I felt the text drift further and further away. It became foggy, almost invisible. It grew slow and uninteresting, and wasn’t going anywhere.

This was no joke. Nine-year-old Linde was right: I didn’t even have a hint of a clue.

But what about Sara? I liked Sara. I couldn’t just leave her in the midst of her life’s most dramatic moment?

But what about Sara?

Seriously, though: Yes, I could. You can leave a character in a novel. No one will be traumatized by that. Just write something else. Writing something you’ll be good at. Screw this!

But what about Sara? And Steinar? Poor Steinar. And all the others in the book. I couldn’t just abandon them in an unfinished text like cannon fodder.

Hello! Cannon fodder for whom? Are you nuts? Delete!

Delete? But I can’t do that, can I…?

Of course you can! Delete, then everything is gone.

Plain and simple.

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Yes? Yes. Delete so everything’s gone?

Just as well. Do something you’re good at.

Delete, then everything’s gone.

Plain and simple.

The Narrator That’s when I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned.

There stood nine-year-old Linde.

She looked right at me. A hint of a smile, almost imperceptible.

“Do you get it now?” she asked.

“Do I get what?” I said.

She sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.

“That I am the one who has to tell this story,” she said. “Don’t you get it?”

One Brother too Many: Sara can't be bothered to be nice to Steinar. He's too little and annoying and spoilt.

But when his mother dies, he moves in with Sara's family, and Sara finds out she's got a brother. Steinar is always around and spoils everything that used to be great. Sara can't cope with it. Her family can't cope with it.

That's when Sara has a fantastic idea that may just change everything.

«Poetic and engaging about a great challenge for a 9 year old … Hagerup has written a rock solid novel that talks straight to the audience, and at the same time allows them to chew on more than other easy reader’s books tend to do. That takes great talent.»

DAGBLADET

Then we wrote One Brother Too Many.

Photo: Observatoriet

LINDE HAGERUP (1968–) made her literary début in 1999 with the critically acclaimed collection of short texts And it will last for so long (Og det skal vare så lenge). In 2008 she published her first children’s book, The Worlds Greatest Gorilla and Other Rhymes (Verdens største gorilla og andre rim), which received an award from the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. The book One Brother too Many (En bror for mye) has recieved a number of great reviews.

English title: One Brother too Many Norwegian title: En bror for mye Author: Linde Hagerup Illustrations: Jens A. Larsen Aas ILLUSTRATED FICTION

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Scary Christmas traditions SVEINUNG LUTRO

Lucia Day, December 13th, may well belong to a young blonde girl with a crown of candles on her head and carrying a basket of cakes. But the night before that belongs to an entirely different creature – then it is Lussi who wreaks havoc!

Lussi, the demon who wouldn’t die Lussi is a devilish figure who travels across rooftops or rises up from the earth. She is a resilient woman who refuses to go away!

Throughout November and December I have gone from classroom to classroom talking about creepy crawlies, spirits, trolls and beasts. I’ve been touring schools as part of The Cultural Schoolbag, showing my book: Ghastly Christmas – scary creatures that strike at Christmas time.

Although most of the monsters I talk about are unknown to most, there are always some children who know something. Some have heard of the Austrian bogeyman, Krampus. Both Hollywood and the internet have made him a part of popular culture.

Some know that St. Nicholas was the origin of the gift-bearing Santa Claus. A few of them even know about the Icelandic Yule-characters, and the terrifying she-troll Grýla.

But when I ask the pupils if they’ve heard about the terrifying female creature who wreaks havoc in Norway, it all goes very quiet. No children have heard about Lussi.

It’s a shame. Because in earlier times, children and adolescents were quite mesmerized by this terrifying figure. The night before December 13th, “The long night of Lussi”, was one of the highlights of the dark months.

Darkness with demons As night time fell, young boys would sneak around the houses and draw female characters on the walls.

Elsewhere, the eldest farm boys would dress up in their broadest shirts, the widest aprons and the biggest shawls they could find. They would place a piece of wood on their heads, which was decorated with a pair of ram’s horns. Others would use a flayed calf’s head as a mask.

One lady who grew up in South-West Norway during the 1800s, says that children became “scared stiff” when they witnessed this bizarre sight. Those wearing the costumes went from door to door, “going Lussi” demanding something good to eat.

So it was no blonde, all in white, Lucia-saint that people worshipped.

So it was no blonde, all in white, Lucia-saint that people worshipped. (The tradition of white robes, wreaths, sparkling crowns round the head, and sweet “lussekatt” cakes became common in Norway during the 1950s.) Instead of the angel of light overcoming darkness, people believed it was her total 95

opposite that reigned. Lussi was a demon. Huge and defiant, and with a fierce temper.

Some describe her as a troll with horns sprouting from her forehead. Elsewhere, she’s remembered mostly as an ancient witch. It was said that she came flying through the air on a broomstick or a horse.

Others described her as the leader of a large parade of noisy spirits. This was known as the Lussi mob.

The darkest night It’s no coincidence that Lussi appeared the night before Saint Lucia’s Day. According to folklore, "The long night of Lussi" was the darkest, most evil, and most drawn out night of the year. Horrific creatures of all kinds had free rein. Witches, specters and trolls partied and plundered as much as they wanted. This enchanted night also gave animals the ability to talk to each other. I thought the custom of "going Lussi" on December 12th was dead and buried. I know that my mother did it when growing up in the 1950s, but I’ve not heard of it in recent times. Lussi, and all the traditions around her, just couldn’t compete with a beautiful young girl, I thought.

Horrific creatures of all kinds had free rein.

But one day I talked about Lussi on the school tour, and a teacher, in his late thirties, raised his hand.

He told us that he came from a small village in Sokndal, South-West Norway, where he had gone Lussi during his childhood and adolescence. The evening culminated with a parade and a "Lossifest" (Lussi is called Lossi in this area) in the village hall and a prize awarded to the best costume.

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Halloween or Lussi Once he’d grown up, the tradition came to an end.

But in recent years it had flourished again. Especially after Halloween arrived in Norway, the people from the countryside rebelled. Many refused to celebrate this imported festival, and instead breathed new life into the old Lussi traditions, with children dressing up in scary costumes on December 12th, not October 31st.

Lussi lives on – in this day and age, too!

Translated by Matt Bagguley

Scary Christmas: December has not been merely about jolly old men, angels, peace on earth and festive celebration. Before the 1800s, Christmas could be terrifying. Midwinter was a time for ghosts and goblins, witches and devils. Frightful creatures of all sorts would appear.

Scary Christmas brings to light the stories of the creepy Christmas characters. Tales about sneaky Perchta, the mysterious Christmas Goat, Grýla the gruesome Troll and monstrous Krampus.

We promise you: Christmas will never be the same once you’ve read this book.

Photo: André Løyning

SVEINUNG LUTRO has worked in film and TV production, as a teacher and as an environmental therapist. He studied literature and non-fiction on the author training course run by the Norwegian Institute for Children's Books.

English title: Scary Christmas Norwegian title: Skrekkelig jul Author: Sveinung Lutro NON-FICTION

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INTO THE WOODS Publisher: Cappelen Damm Agency AS 2018 Contact: foreignrights@cappelendamm.no Editor: Anette S. Garpestad Design & layout: Kamilla Ildahl Berg Cover Illustration: Ă˜yvind Torseter

Special thanks to illustrator Ă˜yvind Torseter for the wonderful cover illustration, as well as for letting us use illustrations from Mulysses in the magazine.

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