24 days till Christmas

Carlos Da Cruz 2019: 24 päivää jouluun

24 stories about Christmas traditions: making gingerbreadhouses, elfs, having candels burning by the window.

Many of our traditions have come from abroad: mostly Sweden and Germany.

Himmeli, decoration made of straws (hay).

Carelian cuckoo made of one peace of wood.

The scary Nuuti buck that takes christmas away on January 13th.

Candelabra by the window, nowadays electric.

Water book

Marketta Vaismaa 2016: Vesikirja
Illustrations by Carlos da Cruz

It has been raining for four days and everyone is cranky. Most of all Granpa, who dropped his dentures in the toilet.  Pasi has been reading about Waterman and suddenly he appears and takes Pasi to an adventure to see the different forms of water, how it circles on earth and how it gets from the sewers back to nature.

The book tells that Finland is called a land of thousand lakes. Pasi and Waterman visit a watertower (and Waterman tells how it works). The book has short comic strips to tell about Pasi and Waterman.  But mainly the purpose of this book is to inform. We also learn what not to throw in toilet, how to spare water and how unique the Baltic sea is.

The unique Baltic sea

We even learn that the water we are drinking now, was also drunk by Julius Cesar and how the aqueducts worked and how people used to look for water with magic twigs.

The book ends in latin:  "Navigare necesse est, vivere no est necesse".  Of which I don't agree with, since I am such a farm girl.

King's road - a journey from history to present day

Janne Haikari: Kuninkaantie - matka historiasta nykypäivään 2014
illustrated by Carlos Da Cruz

King's road is a historic postal route that has many stories. The main character, a small boy Vertti is very interested in history.He travels from Åland islands to Vyborg.

The book has fifteen sections that introduce different themes in the different regions of the road. The themes cover development of communication, industry, education and energy production just to mention few.

The book has colorful illustrations and the information is divided into small boxes.

How information is shared in history is told in the spread
that covers King's road from Piikkiö to Salo.

 
Kuninkaantie is a road that leads from Bergen, Norway to St. Petersburg, Russia. In Finland it starts from Ahvenanmaa and ends to the east boarder Vaalimaa.