Showing posts with label aino havukainen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aino havukainen. Show all posts

Monday, December 21, 2015

The wonderful Christmas of Tatu and Patu

Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen 2015: Tatun ja Patun ihmeellinen joulu

The Oddwille boys are back causing mayhem. They have been inveted to their friend's, Veera's,  house  for Christmas. Naturally, everything goes wrong from the start, when the boys accidently end up in the neighbour's house, while they are on vacation for the Holidays.

Tatu and Patu are not that familiar with the Christmas traditions,  but they seem to get it all wrong. Luckily the book has a happy ending they all have a lovely Christmas.







At the bottom left picture is illustrated
how the baking really looks like
The Best part of the book is comparing, what the boys imagined the Christmas would be like and then the reality. For example the baking seldom is as idyllic as it seems in the books. And even though there is a big mess, baking is fun.


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Veera

Veera and vehicles
Aino Havukainen, Sami Toivonen
Veera ja menopelit 2000
Veera ja maatalon eläimet 2000
Veeran keittiöpuuhat 2002

Veera is level headed girl, who guids Tatu and Patu (the boys from Strangetown). Veera is the voice of reason, while the boys are running around and make silly remarks.


The current trend is to make separate books for girls and boys.  This is definately aimed at girls (or the parents of girls). Tatu and Patu series is aimed at boys. At least in our house the boys like to listen to this story. Maybe that is because Tatu and Patu are part of this book series as well. I am sure many girls read Tatu and Patu stories as well.



Veera, Tatu and Patu see trains
Veera and vehicles
(Veera ja menopelit)

In the first book,  the boys are arguing, if an airplane can be pulled by a train. Veera shows Tatu and Patu different vehicles, everything from bikes to sailing boats.




Veera and the farm animals




Veera and farm animals
(Veera ja maatalon eläimet)
Veera, Tatu and Patu are visiting a farm. What does a cow look like? Is a pig's nose a socket? The boys get to milk a cow by hand.







Veera, Tatu and Patu visit a hen house












Veera and kitchen chores


Veera and kitchen chores
(Veeran keittiöpuuhat)

Tatu and Patu want to make pizza. Veera helps them and teaches them about different ingredients. The kitchen is full on interesting machines, which the boys want to try out. Cooking isn't done until the kitchen is clean.



Veera guiding Tatu and Patu in cleaning the kitchen




Monday, June 23, 2014

Risto the Rapper

Sinikka and Tiina Nopola
Noodlehead -cover
Illustrated by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen ( Two books illustrated by Christel Rönns)
Hetki lyö, Risto Räppääjä 1997
Risto Räppääjä ja kauhea makkara 1998
Risto Räppääjä ja Nuudelipää 2000
Risto Räppääjä ja pakastaja-Elvi 2001
Risto Räppääjä ja komea Kullervo 2002
Risto Räppääjä ja sitkeä finni 2003
Risto Räppääjä ja Hilpuri Tilli 2004
Risto Räppääjä ja villi kone 2006
Risto Räppääjä ja viimeinen tötterö 2007
Risto Räppääjä ja kuuluisa Kamilla 2009
Risto Räppääjä saa isän 2011
Risto Räppääjä ja nukkavieru Nelli 2012
Risto Räppääjä ja kaksoisolento 2013
Risto Räppääjä ja Sevillan saituri (will be published in July 25th, 2014)


Risto Räppääjä is a young boy that lives with his aunt Rauha. He plays the drums and raps (hence the name Räppääjä = rapper in Finnish). Risto and Rauha have odd adventures, even though they try to live ordinary lives. Risto’s best friend is Nelli Nuudelipää (Noodlehead). Risto has bookseries, plays and movies.

Risto the Rapper movie book -cover
The bookseries starts with Risto and Rauha moving into a new home. Risto plays his drums and then the threatening t Letters start coming from upstairs. In book nr 2, Rauha has to come up with new product to sell. Rissto comes up with sausages that they can get from Hungary.

 In Risto Räppääjä and Noodle hear, RIsto gets new neighbors. At first Risto doesn’t like Nelli but soon they are best friends. Pakastaja-Elvi is a story about Rauha’s cousin Elvi, who comes to help out when Rauha breakes her leg. Risto thinks Elvi is a criminal.

 In Risto Räppääjä and Handsome Kullevo a new boy Handsome Kullervo moves to the house next door. Nelli and Kullervo becomes friends and Risto becomes jealous. In the next book Risto gets a pimple even though Risto is too young. Risto tries to hide it from Nelli. It turns out that the pimple is glue.

The two books presented here are special books. The first has pictures from the first Risto Räppääjä movie.

Alpo tells what the characters were thinking
Risto the Rapper movie book 2008
-39 coincedenses and facts about the movie
Alpo the cat knows what really happened in the movie. He tells what Risto and Nelli thought when Risto visits Nelli. And what Nelli thought, when Risto shows her his favourite stone. This book gives another angle to the movie. The producers of the movie enlighten the birth of the movie and how one movie involves dozens of professionals, but also roles, juice and snacks. Sinikka and Tiina Nopola tell, who the characters from the manuscript jump into the screen and how the whole movie is team work.

 
 RR as in Risto the Rapper 2010
RR cover
The second book tells background stories to Risto: what was he like as a baby? What kind of childhood did Rauha have. It also explains the prowerbs that are used in the book. The book also includes word acrobatics. There are also puzzeles such as: what doesn’t belong to the group.











The faces of Risto the Rapper


Monday, November 18, 2013

Tatu and Patu Strange gadgets




Aino Havukainen, Sami Toivonen 2005

This book has been translated at least into:
Estonian:Teedu ja Peedu imelikud masinad
German:  Tatu und Patu und ihre verrückten Maschinen
Lithuanian:  Keistieji Tato ir Pato išradimai
Russian: Тату и Пату – изобретатели
French: Les incroyables inventions
Swedish: Sixtens & Blixtens underliga uppfinningar
Danish: Kalle & Palles sære opfindelser


This book introduces gadgets that make the family life easier. My favourite is the Morning routine automat that can be seen in the picture. The person walks to the machine and out comes a fully washed, clothed and fed child.     

Morning routine automat
This could be further developed by making bed a conveyor belt that tips the child into the machine. Then the output would be in a bus stop, where the kid would be picked up and taken into school. There has been a lot of talk about teen agers who do not get up and make it to school. Now they have people that go wake them up. This morning routine automat would help. The parents could just press remotely a button and the child would be ready on time.



The other gadgets include a   life saver for huge crowds ( ihmismeri in Finnish means an ocean of people= huge crowd), where a giant balloon pops up when a child gets lost for example stores. Then the parents can find the child easier. 

There is also a Boogie man repellent, which is my son’s favorite. The illustration shows, how everything seems a little scary in the dark.

Other gadgets are a puddle maker,  Bad food detector,  Cleaning outfits,  Ice cream ball game,  Hair adder and a machine for pedant work that can for example make a pedicure for a Barbie.