Ragline

Annika Sandelin 2010: Businnan
illustrated by Linda Bondestam

Annika Sandelin 2011: Businnan blir kär
illustrated by Linda Bondestam

Ragline (Businnan/Retkuliina)

Ragline  is a plush dog that has been thrown away,  but luckily Petra has taken her in. Ragline (Businnan in Swedish, Retkuliina in Finnish) is very selfis and high maintenance plush toy and she has to find her place among the other toys and where nobody appreciates her need to be the center of attention. The others are soon ready to throw her back on the street again.

Ragline enjoys the swings

Luckily Ragline is so loveable that she gets to stay.

Lessons about accepting others the way they are, but also not being a dive.

Ragline falls in love (Businnan blir kär)

Ragline meets Rackham a very charming boy plush dog and together they run away.

While Ragline is romacing with Rackham, Petra is very sad because she left. Petra's other toys at first are glad but then start to miss her as well. The house is boring without Ragline. Ragline soon sees that life isn't as rosy as she thought it would be and returns home a lot fatter. It turns out she is going to have a puppy.

The second version reminds me of Disney's Lady and the Tramp, but with a Kaurismäki twist: the male always leaves! That is too rough. I prefer the Disney version, but the perspective is good and so is the lesson: beware of these charmers!

To really charm Ragline, Rackham takes her to the garden.

Pixon brothers and the homely glow of TV

Malin Kivelä 2013: Bröderna Pixon & TV:s hemtrevliga sken
Illustraded by Linda Bondestam


The four Pixon brothers love to watch TV and eat candy and chips. One day the TV does not work anymore and the boys have to come up with something else to do.

That is a bit troublesome, since they have the muscles size of a pea, but they do come up with imaginative things.

The books is a great example and an exaggeration of what happens when you watch too much TV. I guess the same goes for too much video games or playing with your phone. Exaggeration is a fantastic way of making a point and the illustrations remind me of the Addams Family.

I personally think the TV and actually the Finnish National Broadcasting Company have done a great job at least in educating people in languages: the foreign TV programs have subtitles and therefore we hear all possible languages from Chinese to Danish.  I started learning German with die Schwarzwaldklinik. But then again it is wonderful to watch TV in Germany, where  Fran Drescher and other Americans speak German.

Allan and Udo

Minna Lindeberg 2012: Allan och Udo
Illustrated by Linda Bondestam

 Allan and Udo have been a couple a long time now. But it is not always easy to be together, when you are totally different from the other.

On Christmas Eve Udo refuses to celebrate . He has had a long carreer in the military and now he is depressed. He is going to sit in the kitchen until Christmas is over. Allan is sad, he knows how hard it is to cheer up someone who is depressed.

Allan lures Udo to dream land In dreamland anything can happen. Old men can fly, cakes do not have bottoms and a mysterious baker is sneaking around and getting Udo to forget Allan.  Udo tries to get away, but cannot. Allan comes to the rescue and  Udo remembers all great memories with Allan.

When they wake up, they go for a walk and see the stars and everything around them is wonderful again.

The book deals with how difficult it sometimes is to play together, how sweet sorrow memories can be and how dreams have a logic of their own. The book tells us how it must feel like to grow old, when all your dreams are behind you. In best cases as memories. It reminds us not to take those who are the dearest for granted.

This book was selected as one of the most beautiful books of 2011 and the most refreshing thing is that the relationship of the two men isn't explained in anyways. I wish that was the case in modern Finland as well, where still being different is not welcomed.

My own small little

Ulf Stark & Linda Bondestam 2014: Min egen lilla liten


In a dark and gray cave lives a Creature. Its eyes and skin can’t stand light. Every time it goes outside in the daytime, it feels a little sick, and then real sick, then it dies. Creature is gray like the mountain where its cave is. And it is all alone. Little Spark, who came from the Sun breaks into the Creature’s darkness and shows it colors and light. But Spark lives only one day, then it has to return and leave its friend, Creature.

The tone of the story is shining with melancholy, wistful and poetic.
The story reminds me of Pessi and Illusia as well as the children’s song Menninkäinen and Päivänsäde (Ray of light and the forest troll)

I do not understand why my boys want to read this book over and over again. To me, its just too sad to be a good fairy tale. It reminds me too much of real life: you have a quick view of something that you cannot have and then it is taken away from you. I had to write about this book, because it so well describes the Finnish mentality: we are gray creatures and when someone flashy and bright comes we are amazed. And in the end, we are content to live in our little gray caves, because we have to, otherwise we die. Or so we think, the Creature has no choice.

The strange delay of Anna Winter

Sinikka Nopola 2008: Anna Talven outu viivytys
Illustrated by: Linda Bondestam

All the city has been waiting for two months. Anna Winter, where is she? The city people are wondering, what’s keeping her? She should be here by now. Anna Winter had always been conscientious. Sometimes she has been late for few weeks but thats nothing.

Anna’s sister Hydrangea Autumn is tired and angry: all she hears is complaints. The world is ugly, gray and dark, autum has ruined people’s lives. Miss Autumn is weapy and people think that autumn is making their lives miserable. All of a sudden Miss Autumn sees Anna Winter in a milkshake bar with Mr. Summer. Why is he still here? He is supposed to be at Gran Canaria already. Miss Autumn sees that the two are smitten.

Mr. Summer is complaining to Anna: he doesn’t seem to do his job right, people think its too hot or too rainy. Anna understands him. She is considered too cool, even though winter is supposed to be cold. Mr. Summer asks Anna a favor, his cat needs to be taken care of.

Anna promises to take care of the matter and leaves to ask her mother. Anna’s and Hydrangea’s mother is Mrs. Spring. Her artist name is Primavera, it sounds better. Mrs. Primavera is too busy, she can’t take care of the cat. She has to prepare for her performance. In the last week of spring, she appears in glittering gown. Mrs. Primavera is wondering, why she has such pale daughters. Anna defends herself and her sister. Autumn is wistful, oblique light with amazing colors and she herself knows all the shades of white. Anna says that she opens up only to those who have time. Mrs. Primavera suggest that Anna should ask her sister.

Hydrangea doesn’t want the cat. She is so tired. She tells Anna that she is the only one who brings out the truth: she undresses the trees from leaves and isn’t afraid of anything, not even darkness or death. Hydrangea hates Mr. Summer and refuses to take the cat.
 
Anna sits in the park bench and wonders, what she should do, when Mr. Mud and Mr. Slush drive by with their bikes. The children love them, but adults do not care too much about them. Both men are infatuated with Anna and promise to take the cat. Anna hurries back to the milk shake bar only to find out that Mr. Summer has left her a note. Anna starts to cry and it starts snowing outdoors. Miss Autumn arrives and apologizes. She is not surprised that Mr. Summer has left. Summer comes and goes and always someone pines over him. Mr. Summer had wooed Miss Autumn, too. He had told her that she has an exiting personality and had offered her cotton candy. In the end Mr. Summer had locked Miss Autumn to the beach locker room, because he wanted still in September be admired by people. Miss Autumn tells Anna that Mr. Summer has a fiancée, Doris Heatwave. She lives at Canary Islands. She is a giggling air head in bikinis. Both of them are superficial, which Miss Autumn and Miss Winter aren’t.

Mrs. Primavera is a real diva.

Mr. Slush and Mr. Mud come running and tell the girls that the cat has climbed in a tree. The fire department tries to get the cat down. Anna Winter and Hydrangea Autumn leave to get Mr. Wind. Mr. Wind is having a day off and is reading poems at the attic. Miss Autumn asks him to help. Mr. Wind agrees and starts buffing and soon the cat is down. Mr. Wind promises to take the cat in his care. Mr. Wind feels a little heavy hearted. He tries to catch a glimpse of Miss Winter through the window. He misses the decorative snowflakes and is surprised. He is an independent soul after all. He also notices that the city without Miss Winter’s touch is very empty.

Miss Autumn dreams about a vacation to England. She has heard that people like Autumns there. At her sisters guestroom she hears from the radio that the Canary Islands has had an exceptional heat wave that has dried out Summer. Miss Autumn is pleased, they should scorch together.

Miss Winter notices that she does not miss Mr. Summer any more. It starts to snow. People are happy and Miss Winter goes to the ice rink, where Mr. Wind joins her. Mr. Summer writes the letter he promised and explained that Summer and Winter cannot be together long, because they confuse each other and people too much.

I love that seasons change. How boring would it be, if it was always summer? This story highlights how people react to the seasons. Last winter we had no snow and it felt awful. Intresting in this book is that it empfasize that is it admirable to be serious (like Miss Autumn and Miss Winter). In my mind the book also warns about charming cheaters. Very cute.