Philosophical Monster

Suna Vuori
Illustrations by Katri Kirkkopelto
Hirveää parkaisi hirviö 2005
Hirmuista koulupäivää, hirviö! 2006
H niinkuin hirviö 2007

Three books about a philosophical little monster, who is trying to find his place in the world.

Hirveää, parkaisi hirviö (Horrible, cried the monster)
Little monster wakes up after having a nightmare. In it he is in an amusement park that is full of children. One kids jumps on the monster's tale, another glues a lollypop in his fur and a third child tells him he is not real.

Mother and Father try to explain existance to little monster.

What if Mother doesn't exist either? Maybe monsters are just a dream or a book that someone is reading. What if the reader closes the book and stops thinking about monsters? Does that mean that the monster stops to exist.

Mother tries to comfort little monster. She thinks that they would not know anything about it. Father wakes up and tells little monster that they are born in homecave and they shall die there, too. This leads to little monster asking, what happens when they die.

Mother tells him, there are many beliefs: some think they grow wings, others think nothing happens. The body decomposes and starts to grow forest. Little monster is worried that Mother and Father die soon. Mother says they won't die, only when little monster has children of his own, who ask difficult question, which hardly have one correct answer. Have horrible dreams!


 Hirmuista koulupäivää, hirviö!
(Have a horrible school day, monster)

Little monster is going to school for the first time and he is a bit nervous. Mother wakes him up and asks for breakfast. Father is a bit upset: did Little Monster go swimming last nigh, he looks so clean. Mother advises that he should roll down the hill, so no one will notice.

Mother also checks that Litlle Monster's breath stiks. It does, so Little monster is ready for school.

At school monsters study grinning, howling, biting, scratching and scaring. Little Monster is big and clumsy and Mother and Father call him thiker, which is just as awful as calling someone linguistically talented or delicate.

At school the teacher tells the children that they are going to be real monsters: crude, brash, lazy, dirty and behaving badly. At the end of the school year the children will bring a lot of shame to their parent.

Monster schoolchildren study their reflextions on a pond.

Little Monster meets other kids. One is Ho Polloi, who has escaped from a warzone.  The teacher takes the children ouside to examine nature.

When Little Monster comes home, he asks a lot of questions: why hadn't his parents told him about war? Was mother a girl some times? He has also decided to become vegetarian and he wants to be called Odysseys.



H niin kuin Hirviö
(H is for monster)
Odysseys is learning to read.

" Vaari arvaamatta karjahtaa: Aargh!" Little monster reads books and learns letters from AARGH to ÖRF. In Odysseys opinion letters are exiting: they make you laugh and cry, hope and fear, belive and doubt. You can do almost anything with them.

This book has 17 little stories. Some Odysseys reads from his school book and some happen to him and his friend.

Örf is a sound that a monster would make.