\New Swedish Books, spring 2019 1
New Swedish Books 26 Books about being different
That tweenies won’t quite let picture books go is a welcome joy. Sometimes the reason is nostalgia and sometimes it’s because they manage to find new titles that are written especially for their age group. The picture book and its sibling the graphic novel are no longer uncool. Put it this way: it’s equally cool to be reading flat books with lots of pictures, as it is to read thick books with none. Reading itself is only highly valued by those who know how to. The readers know the value of complex picture books such as the August Prize-winning (2017) The Bird Inside me Flies Wherever it Likes the artist Berta Hansson, written by Sara Lundberg. This year, and in dialogue with Ylva Karlsson’s writing, Lundberg develops the genre further in Me and Everyone Else. In it several children are speaking, all from a first-person perspective, whilst sometimes also being described by an external narrator. What does it mean being part of a whole and how can you be different in a community that’s named ‘everyone’? There’s no linear narrative, not because of wanting to question classical ways of storytelling, but in order to demonstrate the value of being together in our differences, with our different perspectives and different ways of looking at things. No one is identical. This is My Life describes being different because of a condition. There is a purpose here: to portray how an autistic girl experiences her life. An inexperienced author might have attempted a general description by describing the condition rather than the individual. However such is not the case with the much experienced Rose Lagercrantz who has written about extraordinary children, with our without conditions, ever since Tröst åt Pejter (1974). In This is My Life Sophia makes a speech on her fourteenth birthday at summer camp. She hopes that life will be richer, filled with friendship and that it will really start now. Anneli Furmark’s four-panel drawings, a format familiar to the graphic novel genre, demonstrate both her insecurities and joys. “ What does it mean being part of a whole and how can you be different in a community that’s named ‘everyone’? ” Rose Lagercrantz (text) b. 1947 Anneli Furmark (ill.) b. 1962 This is My Life YA Graphic novel, 12–15 years, 110 p. Publisher Bonnier Carlsen www.bonniercarlsen.se Rights Bonnier Rights Mathilde Coffy Mathilde.coffy@bonnierrights.se Rose Lagercrantz Works Tullesommar, chapter book, 1973 Flickan som inte ville kyssas, YA novel, 1995 Mitt lyckliga liv, chapter book, 2012 Selected Literary Prizes Expressens Heffaklump 1988 Tidningen Vi:s litteraturpris 1992 Augustpriset 1995 Anneli Furmark Works Labyrinterna, comic album, 2002 Jordens medelpunkt, graphic novel, 2012 En sol bland döda klot, graphic novel, 2016 Literary prizes Seriefrjämandets Urhunden 2005, 2008, 2016 Photo: Kajsa Göransson Photo: Kartago förlag