Pretty funny journey

Aura Sevón 2013: Aika metka retki
phographs Paula Lehto
drawings Emilia Ahonen

Seven year old Elsi is listening to her Great-grandmother's stories about her childhood and is taken back in time to the 1930's.

Things were little different then. Elsi is born 2006, her mother 1974, her grandmother 1949 and greatgrandmother Lempi in 1928.

Elsi imagines being a washer woman.

Lempi's mother was a working woman and the kids in the block stayed home with other kids. Some women were taking care of them. Elsi imagines what the life was like back then.

The book has lovely reconstructed photographs and the story tells many details from the past.

I cannot help but comparing this story to my mother and grandmother. I am born 1977, my mother 1949 and her mother 1911. As a comparison: we are missing a generation. But  my husband is born 1975, his mother 1954 and his grandmother 1928.

My grandmother was a maid at a local manor so the stories in from my family evolve around farming not city life. That is why this book was so interesting. I assume that not all families living in the city were like this, so it might be a little romanticized, but I don't care. Nice book any way.

Lemming Fall

Heikki Willamo 1998: Siiri Sopulin syksy

Siiri is a young lemming, who has been eating well in the summer. In the fall, she notices that the other lemmings are getting restles. Where are they all going?

Siiri wants to go with and she follows them. The lemmings form queues. She even swims when the walkabout takes her to the lake shore.

Siiri also visits a human garden, where she meets chickens, a cat and children.  She has to get back to the forest. There she meets another danger: a harvester, which cuts down trees.  She keeps on walking and soon she is back home.

When she has spend a few days, she meets Sampo. Siiri had thought all the other lemmings had left and was glad to see some body else.


Sampo and Siiri meet and old lemming, two years old, who tells them stories about walkabout. The lemmings in the forest do not start walking every year, but it occurs usually, when there are too many lemmings in the forest.  Also those who leave, often do not come back.

Lovely photos of forest lemmings.

Day at the Korkeasaari zoo

Katariina Heilala 2015: Päivä Korkeasaaressa
illustrated by Juha Hämäläinen
photos Korkeasaari archive

I am not a big fan of zoos. I do understand their usefulness as restoring animal, but it still sometimes makes me real sad to see the animals in cages.

If you're going to the Korkeasaari zoo, you should read this book. The book is full of wonderful pictures of the animals in the zoo. And there is a lot of information about the rare animals and how they come to the zoo.

The basic story is Grandmother taking Jade and Jonas to the zoo.

Saippa : saimaannorppa = The Saimaa ringed seal

Sari Kanala 2015
English text: Erja Mononen
gouaches by Daga Ulv
photographs by Juha Taskinen


As the title reveals, the main character is Saippa, the Saimaa ringed seal. The book tells the how Saippa lives his/her first year at Saimaa.

The book is illustrated with gouaches as well as photographs and the texts are both in Finnish and in English.

Mama seal giving birth

The story starts when Mama Saimaa ringed seal gives birth to her cub in a pile of snow.  Obviously there are no photos of that, but the illustration is charming.

At the end of the book is more information about the other seals living in Finland. And the facts are checked by the ringed seal scientists.

Seals on Saimaa.

Maybe I am a bit  fixated with the ringed seals.  Earlier this year I blogged about another seal. But it is easy. They are so cute and adorable. It seams that the less attractive endangered species do not get such attention. It is a cruel world.

Where are you going, mitten?

Suvi-Tuuli Junttila 2014: Minne matka, lapanen?


 Mitten gets lost. He/she wonders around and first finds an acorn. Together they have an adventure in the winter wonderland and find a cork. They are scared by a big dog, almost drowned before they end up at wasteland.

There is another mitten and many other friends. Acorn is not happy and continues to look for a place to settle.







This book is illustrated by photographs taken from miniature worlds. The details create a fantastic feel of getting lost in the big world. And sometimes the snow resembles wool tassels.

Of course the Finnish melancholy is present.

National treasure: Finnhorse

Sanna Karppinen & Marianne Ketelimäki 2014: Kansallisaarteemme Suomenhevonen


While others treasure gold and dimonds, we here in Finland treasure old domestic animals. Sheep, cows, hen, goats, dogs have all their own breeds that are valued nowadays. They are part of our cultural heritage.

This book is about one national breed: the Finnhorse. The horses were bred in different lines, but the main reason was to have a working horse that could help in the fields in spring, summer and fall and in the forest in winter.



The pictures take the leading role, but the book is very informative as well.

I am not a borse person at all, but after reading this book I understand the horse enthusiast a little bit better.

More about Finnhorse at Suomenhevosliitto, the Kansallisaarteemme Suomenhevonen Facebook page and Hippos.