\New Swedish Books, spring 2019 1
New Swedish Books 20 Eating Grass Sven Nordqvist,
famous for his entertaining drawings of the Swedish countryside in the Pettson and Findus series, is in Eating Grass allowed to test out his jovial style against the writing of children’s books debutant Sami Said. Exactly what part of the world in which the story is set is left unsaid, but it is more reminiscent of Said’s birth country Eritrea than it is of Swedish farmland. The central conflict revolves around the lack of rain or flooding – a climate theme that has become eerily topical even here in the north. If I had read this book when I was a child in the 1980s I would have interpreted it as a humorous story about life in an African village, where the most important task for the children is to collect water, asking when it will rain, whilst in the next moment asking when the sun will come out of the clouds again. The story is funny in 2019 too: the village ‘grumpy man’ is put in his place and forced to invite everyone to a feast when it is revealed that the cloud-catchers and the sun-magnets he has been selling are fake. And it was the children who uncovered the truth. It is exciting to see how facial features previously spotted in Nordqvist’s modest farmers and peasant women sitting in meadows or atop stone fencing now are spotted in characters present on cornfields and up on roofs attached with antennas in warmer climates. They fit happily with Said’s classically depicted conflict, that between child and grown-up, and between rich and poor, which is written with welljudged and balanced words. Sami Said (text) b. 1979 Sven Nordqvist (ill.) b. 1946 Eating Grass Picture book, 3–6 years, 24 p. Publisher Natur och Kultur www.nok.se Rights Koja Agency Carin Bacho carin.bacho@kojaagency.com Sami Said Works Väldigt sällan fin, adult fiction, 2012 Monomani, adult fiction, 2013 Människan är den vackraste staden, adult fiction, 2018 Literary prizes Stora Läsarpriset 2012 Katapultpriset för bästa debut 2013 Sven Nordqvist Works Hattjakten, picture book, 1987 Tomtemaskinen, chapter book, 1994 Var är min syster?, picture book, 2007 Literary Prizes Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 1992 Astrid Lindgren-priset 2003 Augustpriset 2007 Photo: Anders Wiklund Photo: Viktor Gårdsäter