Princess Daredevil's winter magic

Elina Hirvonen 2017: Prinsessa Rämäpään talvitaika
illustrated by Mervi Lindman

Princess Daredevil has many crowns: the golden is for Important Thoughts, yellow is for Fun Thoughts, Pink is for Great Adventures and the silver is for Calm Sleep. She wears her crowns when the need calls for them.  But her most important treasure is her Great-Grandmother's ring and it is magical.

Right now Mom is calling Princess Daredevil to get dressed and go outside.  Princess Daredevil is still looking for her pearls: the amber pearls are for superpower and the white are for occasions when you want to cry but you absolutely do not want to. Princess Daredevil decides to put on princess gown, golden crown, turquoise ring and the fairy wings. You never know, you may want to fly when sledding.

I can so relate to the mother's mood.

 Mom's really getting angry and already counting down.  Princess Daredevil rushes to the door. Mom asks, who is going sledding in a princess dress?  Princess Daredevil tells her that something might happen. Mom orders her to take off the glitter and dress and put on overalls. Her brother is already dressed and getting hot.

 Mom is not always angry, she can be fun, too. In Princess Daredevil's opinion she just doesn't understand the Princess Daredevil has something important going on, which can't be dropped just because it's bed time or time to go out.

Besides Mom is wrong: princess dress can be under the overalls. The dress gets caught between the zipper. Mom  gets angrier and then Daredevil's brother poops so that it comes out of the neckline of his overalls. Mom tells Daredevil to be ready when they get back from the clean up.

Instead of getting dresses, Princess Daredevil puts on the crown of Important Thoughts. She makes the living room a sunny beach and creates ice cream portions for her and her mom.

At first Mom gets really mad. Then she sees the ice cream. She realizes that Daredevil only wanted to make her glad. She also sees the magic and together they spend a day on the beach instead of going sledding.  Mom apologizes for yelling at her and together they dance on the warm beach.

Sometimes parents and children do not understand each other at all. Grown-ups think its all about schedules and order. Kids on the other hand see things adults do no. Some times it is good to stop and put on the Imagination Crown.

Invisible

Elina Hirvonen 2016: Näkymätön
illustrated by Ville Tietäväinen

Captain cannot sleep, her real name is Flower, but she wants everyone call her Captain.  She wants to be an astronaut. At the moment she leads the Space Dudes, who can save the universe from Bad Guys.

Usually she falls asleep easily, but now she is thing about day care tomorrow. If she wishes hard enough, could everything be totally different?

In the morning she departs with the Space Dudes and finishes her porrige and gets dressed real fast. Mother is surprised and Captain says the day care kids have to be brave and fast. She decides Everything Changes Now.

Captain asks the Space Dudes to fix the situation.

Mom leaves her in the day care and Captain smile. If she smiles enough everything will be fine. But the other kids don't want to play with Captain.  The other girls turn their backs on her and boys tell her, they don't want to play with girls.  Captain swings hard when the others play together.

When Mom picks her up and ask did she have a good day, Captain smiles and lies, yes. Together with her Mom and Dad Captain go swimming and visits the library. For supper they have pan cakes, but Captain belly hurts as if someone is pressing it with a stone. In the evening she repeats the days events. In the morning her belly still hurts. Mom doesn't listen, she is in a hurry. The Space Dudes have vanished too. Captain tries not to cry, not now, when the other kids can see. Again she plays alone and in the night she has nightmares.

In the morning Mom and Dad want to talk to her. Captain cannot tell them, they will only be upset and what if her parents find out there is something wrong with her. Then no one will like her. Her mother takes her to the day care and talks with the day care manager.  After nap time there is a sign: "Everyone is welcome to play".  The grownups ask kids to a ring and ask them what happens when they fall with their bikes. The kids know: it hurts.  Then the grown ups ask, how does it feel, when you are left outside of play. It hurts too and there is no band aid for it.

Later the teacher asks Captain, what she would like to play. She says she is good at space. She starts to build a space station and a curly headed boy builds a rocket in it. A girl decorates is with leaves and sticks. When Mom comes to pick Captain, she does not want to leave.

This is a very current book: everyone should be let to play. In adult world that means that everyone should be at least tolerated. This book almost makes me cry, which is a bad thing, because this is an important issue and should be read. As parents we often are so proud, when our kids read well and can calculate difficult mathematical equations. When can we say we are proud that our kids are the social wizards: they get along with every one and that they never hurt anybody?