I am starting to think they're going to ask us to pay rent at the library because we are there so often. The main city library (Stadsbiblioteket) is around the corner from our house at the top of the Avenue and has a terrific kids section with a surprisingly large selection of English-language books (in the second picture above you can see the 3 red "bins" of English books). Good thing, because English kids' books are not that easy to find and when you do they cost about $20 a pop. The one book I haven't been able to resist buying is "Boo and Baa Have Company" about a pair of sheep who try to tempt a cat out of a tree. Ava and I laugh and laugh at the pictures and the oddly literal translation from the Swedish. It's so good.I read the kids English books, but I'm always grabbing the Swedish books for myself because they are pretty simple and because the illustrations are wonderful. My favorite illustrator (and OK, he's actually Finnish, but close enough) is Olof Landström. He does the Boo and Baa books but also a series of books with a naughty pig named Benny that are fantastic.
I can't really get into the whole Astrid-Lindgren-Pippi-Longstocking-thing and am secretly glad there aren't many Pippi stories translated into English at the library because I think she's more weird than she is cute. I mean what's up with that hair anyway?
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2 comments:
Hi Nevada!
It is nice to read your views on Swedish books for children. We love the "Bu och Bä" books and have brought several to Palo Alto.
I talked about Sweden last week in my daughter´s class room and read a short passage from Pippi Longstocking. "Pippi has no father and mother and that is of course good, because noone can tell her it is bedtime when she has so many other fun things to do".
I could see how the eyes of the children (1st graders)grew. This was something they were not used to hearing from a book.
What to you think about Bolibompa? It is an institution in Sweden. We miss it and have not been able to find something similar here.
Susanna
Hi Susanna! I'm glad you posted because I was trying to find your email address yesterday (and couldn't) to see if you would like to stay at our place in Gbg while we are in CA in July? It's a perfect set up for 2 kids :)
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