Otso and Karhunkierros

Jukka Parkkinen 2008: Karhumäen Otso ja Karhunkierros
Illustrator: Pia Westerholm

Aunt Amalia has a birthday and constable Oiva Karhunen gives her  and Otso a camping trip to Karhunkierros. Aunt Amalia loves nature, but is at her best in a well groomed park. She is not very excited to sleep in the cold damp forest.

The drive to the starting point of the round, even then Aunt Amalia tries to persuade the others to stay in a hotel. Constable Karhunen refuses and the start the round.

Evening falls and they start to set up camp. Unfortunately constable Karhunen forgot the tent poles. Aunt Amalia finds great poles from sign posts that forbid making fire and littering. They do not forbid their use of tent poles.

I especially like the pikes and fish sticks
waiting for a submarine

When they reach a river, with a suspension brigde hanging over it.  Aunt Amalia is afraid of the brigde and freezes, when they reach the mid point. The bridge starts swinging and the bears fall into the river. Constable Karhunen loses his bag and the bears build a raft to go after the bag.  And of course there is white water.  But they find the backpack!

In summer time, there is always something to eat in the forest.

They build a campfire with hay and sticks, since their matches got wet. Their food got lost, when they took a dive to the river, so they have to find something else.  Constable Karhunen and Otso pick up berries, Aunt Amalia wants to go fishing, which the others find odd, since she does not have anything to fish with. But she is a resourceful one, she has yarn and a bobby pin in her purse.

She gets fish, Otso and constable Karhunen find not only berries but mushrooms as well.  The leftover porridge is used as pan cakes the next morning. Constable Karhunen finds honey and the bees find him. Soon he is running as fast as he can.

They have spend a week in the forest and they lost the trail, when they fell into the river. Constable Karhunen claims that he knows exactly where they are. He has a map. Of the Bearhill not Karhunkierros. Aunt Amalia is getting bored and is tired of porridge, she wants ice cream. She orders the others to follow her. Suddenly the forest starts to thin out, there is a road and an ice cream van. Aunt Amalia thanks constable Karhunen for a lovely experience.

I have wanted to go to Karhunkierros for a while now. But like Aunt Amalia, I am more of a hotel than a tent person.  Usually the camping/ hiking trips are very romanticized, but this book gives a glimpse of what might happen. Maybe I'll just stick to the day trips in Southern Finland.

Little Darling and Star Bear

Inkeri Karvonen: Pikku-kulta ja Tähtikarhu
illustrated by Kati Vuorento

Story for every month. In January Little Darling wakes up in the middle of hibernation and meets another little bear from the stars, Star Bear.  Little Darling admires the beauty of winter and then falls back to sleep. In February the forest elf meets freezing fox and gives him a job in keeping the paths in the forest clear from snow. In return the elf gives him warm socks, mittens and scarf.

March is the time for the Blue Cat calls Kitty Lavender for dinner. They fish up gold fish from the frozen pond. They have a magical night as cats in March do.  In April the Moss- men are cleaning up their apple tree house.  In May vole Höntynen is waiting for the meadow elf to wake up the meadow. Mrs. Mouse knows that meadow elf has been frozen in and he cannot get out. Höntynen helps him out and soon the meadow is in bloom.

The bugs will rest with  flower bulbs. 

In June the elf of water plays her flute all through the night and in July the cloud plays with a small boy for many days. In August we learn about the secrets of the river.  In September the catebillar is exhausted about getting ready for winter.  He has found a sleeping place from a fence pole, which guards its sleep.

In October the sleepwhisperer has been fluffing the dirt and ironing the poppy petals for the flower bulbs. Soon the small bugs are welcome to spend the winter. In Novermber the snow lilies decorate the ponds. The book ends with December and the elfs serving animals with food.


Stories about animals and elves and the illustrations are as delicate as the wings of fairies.  I must say Kati Vuorento is one of my favourite illustrators.

Good, good night

Karoliina Blackburn 2008: Hyvää, hyvää yötä
Illustrated by Tuomas Mäkelä

Bear Eikka Messevä's best friend Canada goose Siiri is moving south for the winter. Eikka is going to miss her very much, so he tries to glue the leaves back to the branches and hopes that winter won't come. Siiri leaves, Eikka is supposed to start hibernation, but he cannot.

Eikka meets rabbit family and  herd of reindeer, but they just irritate him. Finally gang of Foxes are so energetic and get him to "fall asleep".


Hibernation is talviuni in Finnish, which directly translated is winter sleep. Many Finns have sleeping problems. This book doesn't actually apply to the humans.

This book has classic streotypes of the animals: rabbits have many kids, reindeers are kind of goofy and foxes are quick and sly.

How the elk got its antlers

Sari Kanala: Kuinka hirvi sai sarvensa
photos by Hannu Ahonen
water color illustrations Iida Pihl

Story about elk, bear and a fairy.

Elk and bear are good friends. One day a fairy comes with large antlers and offers them to the elk and the bear. The bear wants them. He is the king of the forest after all. The elk doesn't mind.

Summer passes along and the antlers give bear a lot of trouble: he cannot eat berries or catch fish with them. He is almost starving and he calls for the elk and offers the antlers to him. The fairy takes the antlers off the bear and gives them to the elk.

The lesson of this story is that you don't have to have everything. Sometimes you are better off without gigantic antlers. Let the elk have them.

The book is illustrated by photographs and watercolors. The photos have be "photoshopped" so that the elk, the girl (ie the fairy) and the bear can all be peacefully side by side. This book also has the text both in Finnish and in English.

Tales from the Home spruce

Riina Juvonen 2011: Kotikuusen tarinoita

Old Finnish proverb: “Sitä kuusta kuuleminen, jonka juurella asunto.” demonstrates the importance of understanding your origins and home environment (Basically: Listen to the spruce, under which your home is.) Three cute stories the home spruce tells everyone who wants to listen, every story has a lesson to be learned about friendship, kindness and understanding.

Otso dances with the fairy

The bear and the fairy 

Bear happily demonstrates his strength to others. It had nothing to fear, but neither had he any friends. One day Otso (one Finnish synonym for bear) sits on the meadow and is happy, but he has no one to share it with. He starts to cry. A fairy arrives from the Rainbow and does not know anyone. She asks, if she can join Otso and if he could teach the bear dance for her. All fairies at the Rainbow love to dance. Otso thinks this is strange, but starts to dance. It is fun and Otso forgets all his worries and dances with the fairy.

Other animals arrive, but Otso and the Fairy do not see them. None of them believe what they are seeing and start to laugh. Otso gets mad and runs to the forest. The fairy does not understand why Otso left and flies after him. Otso growls that he won’t dance: he is scary and powerful. The fairy tries to explain that even though he is all that, does not mean he has to be alone. The fairy was sent down to help him. Otso would have wanted another bear, wolf, wolverine or even a raccoon dog. Light fairy is not his idea of a friend. Otso yells at the fairy that she should go back to where she came from and tomorrow he will tear down all forest. Let them laugh at him then!

 In the morning the fairy tickles Otso’s toes. He has company. All the other animals want him to teach him how to dance. In the fall fairy has to move back to the Rainbow and Otso goes to hibernation knowing that the fairy will be back in the spring.

Snappy Ram and the cloud sheep 

Snappy gives grief to the weather elf

High on the sky promenade a herd of cloud sheep. The weather elf is happy with her sheep. Little Snappy is not happy, his mother had just upbraided him for picking on the other lambs. Snappy thinks he is the son of a thunder cloud and not cotton candy and decides to show the others that he can raise a storm as well.

The weather elf tries to stop him, but Snappy just huffs and puffs and shakes hail from his wool. It booms and makes lightnings. It breaks children’s sand castles and creates a mess at the beach, where people are enjoying a lovely summer day. Then he gallops to the fields. There his breaks the electric wires so the freezes melt, milk gets bad and all get wet. Snappy is now happy. The weather elf waits for him very sad, and so do the rest of the herd. Mother says Snappy has embarrassed them all. A real thundercloud refreshes the air, when the heat is too suffocating. The weather elf orders Snappy away from the herd, to the place where tornados, hurricanes and thrombuses are. Snappy is fine with that. The outback of the sky is gloomy. A strong tornado grabs Snappy and shakes him so that he feels sick. The others try to pull him a part too. Soon he is just lying there, alone and unhappy. He just wants to go home to mother. Snappy returns to the others shouting that he wants to be a cloud sheep and nothing else. All get happy and hug him. His father tells him, that a good sheep learns from his mistakes.

 Fox, Bear and the Snake tree 

The snakes have just woken up in the spring. Bear also smells the fresh air and stretches out on the ground, when a snake bites him. The bear gets mad: who dares to disturb him, the king of the forest. A fox hears him and comes to see. The bear’s ear is all swollen and he needs the forest elf’s magic lotion.

The animals discuss what to do with the snakes.

The bear summons all forest animals. The snakes need order and the bear suggest that they are exiled from the forest. The leader of the snakes defends them, that the snakes are very frightened and only defend themselves. The fox suggests that the snakes move to the tree. When there is no fear the snakes and the other animals get to know each other. The snakes help lost animals to find their way. In the fall the leader snake makes a nest next door to the bear. The bear is sure that next spring they can learn to live in peace. Friendship gets everyone to live in peace.

Police Constable Bear and the invisible danger

Marko Kilpi 2010: Konstaapeli Kontio ja näkymätön vaara
illustrated by Janne Markkanen

Grandma Hedgehog is speeding with her kick sled and runs Constable Bear over. Nobody can see her, before it is too late.

Constable Bear wants that everyone can walk safely even when it is dark and he knows that he cannot change Grandma Hedgehog. He asks the town smith to come up with something that makes Grandma Hedgehog visible so others can avoid her.

The smith comes up with all kinds of gadgets. But the best is a reflector that has already been invented. Constable Bear orders everyone to wear one. Soon it is discovered that someone is not obeying the order. The villages have hear footsteps, but no one is seen. Constable Bear solves the mystery.

 The book reveals all kinds of things about us Finns:
 1. Bear has several names
2. The police is respected
3. Using reflector is taught to every child. It is a cheap life insurance
4. Grandmas with kick sleds are fairly common.

Let’s start with bears. My limitation of English language is screaming hear, since I could not come up with a synonym. Grizzly refers to a specific type of bear just like teddy. Finnish language has several: karhu, mesikämmen, otso, kontio just to name a few.

Grandma Hedgehog runs Constable Bear over.

 In this book the police is a bear. Both are well respected and maybe feared a little. By the way why are fear and respect walking hand in hand? It is amazing that the Finnish police considers the people they are dealing with as customers (Unless you are applying for a passport, then you are treated worse than the lowest criminal. I guess the administrators of the police station haven’t attended the same customer service courses as the police officers, who are enforcing law in the streets.)

We Finns believe that the reflector was invented in Finland. And in the country side people actually wear them. The city people think that since there are street lights, the car drivers can see them. But that is not the case. There are so many shadows that make the visibility poor at night time. Remember that darkness commands half the year. I have also heard that some think that it is embarrassed to wear a reflector. I do not understand why the outerwear designers can’t make jackets and pants with reflectors that look good.

Lastly, Grandmas with kick sleds is almost a cliché. In order to use a kick sled the roads must be stomped with snow, so that it is icy. Nowadays most roads are salted or at least sanded, so you cannot ride a kick sled. I do know that at least my mother sleds down to pick up mail with a kick sled.