Minna! The amazing life and impressive deeds of Minna Canth

Leena Virtanen 2018: Minna! Minna Canthin uskomaton elämä ja vaikuttavat teot
illustrated by Sanna Pelliccioni

Minna Canth, (born 1844) is one of the most important authors in Finland and one of the first who wrote in Finnish. Previously Finnish authors wrote in Swedish. She was a widow with seven children, ran a yarn shop and wrote books, plays and articles.

She wanted to change the world, when others wanted it to be the same, she defended the poor, of which nobody cared and she encouraged women, who did not have even the right to vote or to get an education.

Minna Canth fought for equality. This book is the story of Minna and her amazing deeds. She caused many scandals by suggesting in her plays that the working class and women should have the same rights as upper class men. "What would Minna do now, if she lived?"

Next year celebrates 175 years from Minna Canth's birth. I bet other books will be published of Minna then.

The book is labeled Finnish superwomen vol 1. Cannot wait how many volumes this book series has.

Minna's yarn shop that also sells fabrics and accessories

Minna visits the poor and writes realistically of their life.
This too shocks the upper class.

Time travel of museum mice

Kirsti Manninen 2010: Museohiirten aikamatka
Illustrated by Inge Löök
Swedish translation Thomas Rosenberg


Aino and Väinö are small mice that one spring morning clean the museum chest. They found a paraso that they take outside. They see text that says Porvoo and Loviista. All of a sudden the wind takes the paraso and the mice up in the air.

The parasol takes them to
Sibbesgården
Sipoo school museum
Pornainen parish museum
 Johannes Linnakoski's childhood home
Askola local museum
Pukkila local museum
Prestbacka farm and pharmacy collection
Jokela local museum

Places visited on a map (East Uusimaa)

Strömfors forge museum
Hurtig croft
Kycklings home museum
Porlammi local museum
Loviisa city museum
Pernaja veteran museum
Isnäs steam engine museum
Achipelago museum
Sarvisalo local museum
Postbacken outdoor museum
Porvoo Old Town Hall
J.L. Runeberg home
Walter Runeberg's sculptur collection
Albert Edelfelt studio museum
Marthastuga of Qvis Wilhelms
Krakö boat museum

Hoarse cucoo of  Sibbegården

If you have seen Helsinki, this book gives many tips what else to see. Porvoo is only 45 minutes from Helsinki, the furthest place, Jokela local museum is an hour away. This book focuses on the East Uusimaa museums and I must admit, I have not visited any of them.  I feel bad. There are so many great places to visit.

The book is also very educational languagewise: the texts are both in Finnish and Swedish. So you can read the same text in both languages.

At the Duke's Court: life in the 16th century Turku

Paula Moilanen 2007: Herttuan hovissa : elämää 1500-luvun Turussa
Illustraded by Kirsi Haapamäki

An time travel to the 16th century Turku and Turku Castle. Hans Hansson's and his family's lives change, when they get a chance to work as servants in the Duke Juhan's  (later the Swedish King John III of Sweden) court.

The book is based on facts, but also has a fictional plot. The timeline is between 1559-1562.

In the book are described different seasonal events such as the shrovetide. Different chapters tell the everyday life between the upper, even royal, class and the servents. The story takes us to the spinning hut, to the apothecary's kitchen and to the habitat of many different professionals.

Map of Turku

The illustrations of the book support the story and the story combined with facts make history feel alive.

An example:

In 1562 Sweden declares war to Poland and despite the King's oppostion, his brother John decides to marry Catherine Jagiellon, princess of Poland. The fight between the brothers casts deep shadows upon the Finns, but also  the arrival of  the princess of such a great nation coming to
Finland is celebrated.

Feast in the Duke's court

A  great book for any one interested in the middle ages and a reminder of how a big role Sweden has played in the Finnish history. It might also explain why the Finns are so reluctant to learn Swedish: it is the language of the conqueror.

Family adventure

Liisa Lauerma 2011: Sukuseikkailu
illustrated by Ismo Rekola

Noora and Nikke are exploring their family. Noora wants to what it was like, when Grandma was a child and Nikke wants to know, what it means that  great-great-grandfather was a sailor. Does it mean that the future generations will be working with sea?

The kids hear about the lovestories of their great-grandparents, what they got as a present for their wedding and what kind of skills and features they had. Whose hair does Nikke have? And where did Noora get her long and narrow fingers?  Every member of their family have charecteristics. Matti seemed to be an early bird.  Grandma Ursula was hard working and Grandma Maikki laughed alot.  Some relatives are seldom mentioned and families can have secrets.


The book introduces family peacock, which has a tail made of different family roots. Only syblings have the same kind of peacock tail.

While Noora and Nikke researc their family, they discover that their mother is from Häme and their Father's side comes from Carelia.

The book gives instructions how to collect family information, where grandparent's used to live and work and what the everyday life was like. What kind of meals did they prepare?

The book also has additional activities online about Geneology. What a wonderful hobby!

Summer at Doghill

Mauri Kunnas 2015: Kesä Koiramäessä

The Doghill kids are waiting anxiously for summer. The watch the different signs of it including swallows. This summer they have a visitor from the city to spend the whole summer with them.

This book continues the story of the Doghill farm. The Doghill folk show us, what kind of summer activities people used to have in the 19th century.

I can practically hear the birds,  taste the wild straberrys, smell the flowers and feel the waves in my toes. The hail in book reminded me of the hail storms when I was a child.

Bonfire of Whitsuntide

Why coudn't the school books be as much fun as this book? I bet my boys learned something of the Finnish history and customs easily.  This is also s great book to read in the darkness of November.

Janne from Hämeenlinna: How Janne became Jean Sibelius

Tapani Bagge 2015: Hämeenlinnan Janne: kuinka Jannesta tuli Jean Sibelius
illustrated by Salla Savolainen

Young master Janne has a very powerful imagination. He lives with his mother, aunts and grandma in Hämeenlinna.

The story tells about Jean Sibelius's early years in Hämeenlinna, which at the time was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Finland.

Janne tells about his childhood, which resembles Astrid Lindgren's Emil i Lönneberga. Among other things, he tells his aunts piano student not to come to lessons so often that they obeyed. Janne had an absolute pitch and the practising kids really hurt him.

The Russian soldiers at Hämeenlinna.

In Jean Sibelius's childhood, most people he knew, spoke Swedish. He started at a Swedish school, but changed to a Finnish school.

Janne and his friends live for music. The book ends, when on his grandmothers orders, Janne moves to Helsinki to study law.

The illustrations are very lifelike. The sadness of Janne's death is portrayed with a black swan the magnitude of Janne's imagination by a giant cat fish.

All important places of Jean Sibelius in Hämeelinna.

This year i a jubilee of  150 years of Jean Sibelius's birth.  I really enjoyed Katri Kirkkopelto's Melody Forest, which was very artistic and had fabulous illustrations. This book is about the same topic, but focuses only in the childhood of Jean Sibelius. My six year old son was not interested in Melody Forest, but this book he wanted to read.

The book even tells where the name Jean came from. Very informative, I learned a lot about the 1860s in Hämeenlinna, different instruments and Jean Sibelius. I guess to Finnish children Jean Sibelius is a serious person, but this book makes him more approachable. More books like this, please.

Fabulous Light houses

The cover demonstrates the diversity
of the lighthouses

Mika Myllyneva 2012: Mainiot majakat

I have never visited any of the lighthouses in this book. I have seen the Suomenlinna Chuch, which is used as a lighthouse. But the names of the light houses I have heard many times in the radio, where they tell the marine weather. 

A few summers back, my parents spend a night at the Bengtskär lighthouse. It looks nice, but my father was complaining that there was nothing to do.

 In the map (the picture below), you can see that Märket is really close to Sweden. It is actually divided by the boarder between Sweden and Finland.

 The beginning of the book confused me a little, when they talked about valomajakka (literal translation light-lighthouse). I was thinking can there be a light house without a light. Actually there can, the early lighthouses were ID lighthouses without light.  I learned something new again by reading a "kids book".

The lighthouses on a map

The content of the book:

Early lighthouses
Finnish lighthouses
Bogaskär hard luck light house
Jussarö wreck cemetary
Many turns of Tiiskeri
Valassaaret
Tankar the light house of oddities
Gustavsvärn from fortress ruins into a lighthouse
Bengtskär the mother of all light houses
Isokari almost got blown up
The light houses of Helsinki
Utö the first  light lighthouse
Märket between two countries
Sälskär

Bengtskär the mother of all lighthouses

Pekka Väisänen also wrote about the Finnish lighthouses for the Finnish Embassy in London.

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.

Finnish children's castle book

Raili Mikkanen 2011: Suomen lasten linnakirja
kuvitus: Laura Valojärvi

This book gives information about the different castle types: hill fort, fortress, castle and manor castle. The reader gets to see the life in the castle, its history, rulers and inhabitants. The different periods of the castles, the every day life and the festivities as well the wars become very familiar through the stories in the book.

Every castle has short story to illustrate even more the life in the Castle. In Raasepori the story is a real ghost story, the Caslte of Turku burns. A carefully guarded prisoner escapes from Olavinlinna through a shooting hole using a rope or the reader can admire the Polish princess Isabella.

The ghost at the castle of Raasepori

Raili Mikkanen points out that the Finnish castles differ from the castles of Central Europe. The Finnish castles were built as a defense rather than living quarters. Laura Valosaari’s illustrations are nice and dramatic, you’d wish there were more pictures.

Locations of the places in the book

The nine castles in this book are:

Turku Castle

Raasepori Castle

Kastelholma Castle

Castle of Häme

Castle of St. Olaf

Louhisaari Manor

Suomenlinna fortress

Lappeenranta fortress

Svartholma sea fortress