Muzzle in the snow

Tuula Korolainen 2012: Kuono lumessa.
illustrated by Marjo Nygärd

Tassel is sweeping her empty room. She is mad: they are moving, because humans are building a road.  Her dad understands her, he is not happy either.

Tupsu doesn't want to leave her friends and bandy friends. Her parents try to comfort her. She can visit and write letters.

The mouse family starts to ski and soon Tupsu thinks she even enjoys skiing. The ski trail is even and easy. Tupsu notices others in the forest: the bullfinch is discussing with the great tit, the black grouse is feeding in the bushes and a hare has hopped over the tracks.

Suddenly dad stops, there is blood next to the tracks.  Dad tells Tupsu that in the forest are the same dangers as in the fields: fox, weasel, owl.  Dad starts to sing and Tupsu is not afraid anymore.

It starts to snow and Tupsu starts to slow down. It feels like a rubber band is attached to her back. The rubber band is pulling her back home. Tupsu turns around and starts to ski back. But the snow has covered the tracks and Tupsu gets lost.

Tupsu sees a squirrel and asks for directions, but the squirrel doesn't know. Tupsu is starting to loose faith.  A fox surprises her and grabs her. Tupsu wiggles and falls off to a pile of snow.  A group of mice saves her.  Tupsu finds new friends and together they find Tupsu's family.

Nice story about finding new friends, the dangers of snow and adventure.

How the elk got its antlers

Sari Kanala: Kuinka hirvi sai sarvensa
photos by Hannu Ahonen
water color illustrations Iida Pihl

Story about elk, bear and a fairy.

Elk and bear are good friends. One day a fairy comes with large antlers and offers them to the elk and the bear. The bear wants them. He is the king of the forest after all. The elk doesn't mind.

Summer passes along and the antlers give bear a lot of trouble: he cannot eat berries or catch fish with them. He is almost starving and he calls for the elk and offers the antlers to him. The fairy takes the antlers off the bear and gives them to the elk.

The lesson of this story is that you don't have to have everything. Sometimes you are better off without gigantic antlers. Let the elk have them.

The book is illustrated by photographs and watercolors. The photos have be "photoshopped" so that the elk, the girl (ie the fairy) and the bear can all be peacefully side by side. This book also has the text both in Finnish and in English.

Tales from the old church

Sari Kanala 2007
English translation Tony Melville
watercolor illustrations by Iida Pihl
Photographs by Ismo Hannula and Simo Peteri

Tales from the Old Church of Petäjävesi.
The stories tell about an elf, who rings the bells at night, micshievous crows that learn a lesson and the church getting ready for Christmas.

The illustrations are photograhps that have watercolor elements in it. Sometimes it is really hard to tell apart the watercolor from the actual photo. The old church has a fairy tale charm to it.

We Finns take our wood seriously.  Stones were used scaresly since they were so expensive. And so we made our churches from wood. This wooden church is part of the World Heritage Covention.

When I visit the grand churches of Europe, I always wonder how much money was spent on them. How many people could have been fed or educated with that money? On the other hand, I admire them and am very glad that they still exist and that they are not torn down because of some idealism.

Fox cub and the Great Shadow

Katariina Lempinen 2002: Ketunpoika ja suuri varjo


Little fox lives on a riverbank. One night he cannot sleep and wants to see the big world. It has rained and the bank is slippery. The little fox falls into the river. He meets many animals who are too afraid to help the fox cub home. They are afraid of the Great Shadow in the dark forest. The little fox gets scared, but he wants to go home. It turns out there is nothing to be afraid.







Similarities to Veikka's forest adventure are the fox and getting lost. This book about the Great Shadow describes fear and facing it more and uses fear of dark as an example. Many kids can understand that.

The illustrations of this book remind me of the illustrations of Hans Arnold.

Marjaliisa Pitkäranta's animals

text by Ester Ahokainen, illustrations Marjaliisa Pitkäranta
1983: Metsänväen kesäkisat
test by Heli Karjalainen, illustrations by Marjaliisa Pitkäranta 1990: Metsänväen tarinoita
Marjaliisa Pitkäranta 1999: Lasten oma metsäkirja

The Summergames of the Forest folks
(Metsänväen kesäkisat)

I got this as a birthday present when I was a child. It was the first poem book I had read and it is still fantastic, which is amazing becaus I do not like poems and I do not like sporst. But this book combines both and adds a animals to the mix.

Swimming contest of otters and frog

All the animals have a sport that their are good at: the frogs swim, boxers box, reindeer run. All animals are having fun.

Forest animal stories (Metsän eläinten tarinoita)

This book combines stories of animals and elfs, who try to help them.  The main message is that the animals do not always understand the human actions: the pollutions, the littering and selfishness.

The animals are singing to catch the attention of humans.

The Children's own forest book
(Lasten oma metsäkirja)

This book introduces different plants and animals that live in the Finnish forests. There are few stories about forest creaturs such as a mice helping a bear. The book also teaches what mushrooms and berries not to eat.

Children's own forest book .cover

The folks of Maple Cottage

Riikka Jäntti:
Nokikätkön ritarit ja Kuuhiisi 2005
Vaahteratuvan väki ja vaarallinen peto 2008
Toivo ja hirveä hämähäkki 2009
Vaahteratuvan väki ja Kivihovin kirous 2010

The Maplecottage folk remind me of Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem. But instead of English rosegarden pastels this book series is colored more in Finnish dirt road tones. Some illustrations in the books are printed in sepia. These tones fit well into the adventures of Toivo, a hedgehog, Nökö, a squirrel and Iiris, a mouse. Toivo means Hope in Finnish.

What does it say about the cultural differences that hope is female in the English speaking world and masculine in Finland?

Toivo and Nökö fetch water
for Mrs. Rabbit

Nokikätkön ritarit ja Kuuhiisi

(The knights of Sootcache and the Moon demon)
Nökö the squirrel and Toivo the hedgehog are ordered by Nökö’s big brother to remodel the kitchen of the Maple cottage. Iiris the mouse is hired as help and she finds a cave at end of the wood burning oven. In the cave, there is a strange bundle full of maps. The three friends form a knighthood to solve its mysteries.

The knights ask help from Old Mrs. Rabbit and she tells them to go ask the tenant of Ratt Manor (Rottalan kartano). They also learn about the legend of Mouse Mountain and the Moon demon.

The story is exciting and here is a plot spoiler: someone dies.  I couldn’t believe it. In children’s book someone dies! In the next book is the funeral so I had to. The events happen in August, when the nights get darker but still is warm.

Vaahteratuvan väki ja vaarallinen peto

(The folks of Maple cottage and a dangerous beast)
Nökö and Toivo ground a headquarters to the tower of Maple Cottage. They do not have much time to spend there, since Nökö’s brother orders them to collect mountain ash berries and mashrooms. IIris is acting in a play.

When the snow finally falls the three of them have time they fix a boat at Rat Manor’s shed.  In the big forest has been seen the footsteps of a big beast.

The beast

The Mouse Mountain Newspaper doesn’t write about anything else but the beast. The town council sets a curfew in the night time. Since it is winter, the folks cannot get out much.

Everyone tries to capture the beast and in the process the shed burns down.

The story is about how rumors get the best of people and mass hysteria isn’t always that far away. The book also teatches about Media reading skills. About how to interpret the somewhat dramatic headlines that are supposed to sell more magazines.

Toivo ja hirveä hämähäkki

(Toivo and horrible spider)
Spring is comming and Maple Cottage is full of action. Nökö, Toivo and Iiris are sewing a hot air balloon to see the world. They have enough fabric, but they are running out of thread. Tovio finds incredibly large cob web in the attic and he finds the sewer itself. Toivo has nightmares about the creature. It has to go, but nobody knows how and the creature won’t negotiate.  Then Nökö has the idea that maybe the spider can help them.

Toivo has nightmare's about the spider in the attic.

This book is smaller in size and has bigger illustrations than the other books in the series. In this book perticularly the earthy tones work well. Early spring is quite brown, when nothing is not yet growing and the snow is melting away.

Vaahteratuvan väki ja Kivihovin kirous

(The folks from Maple Cottage and the curse of Stone Palace)
Nökö, Toivo and Iiris have finished the hot air balloon and travel all the way to Stone Palace. Toivo picks up a rose and unintentionally gets cursed: “You get lost, vanish, disappear, are forgotten and never get back home.”. Everyone is trying to undo the curse.

Maple Cottage

Little Bean

Little Bean cover

Liisa Kallio:
Pikku Papu 2010
Pikku Papu ja kukka 2011
Pikku Papun laulut 2012
Pikku Papu ja aarre 2013

Little Bean is an inventful little turtle that delight young readers. We do not know the gender of it, because the Finnish pronoun "hän" refers to both boys and girls. The illustrations use basic colors, which makes the books fresh and modern.

Little Bean tries to find a shell

Little Bean (Pikku Papu)

Little Bean is swimming and when she/he comes out of water, his/her shell has shrank! Little Bean has to find a bigger shell: can it be an eggshell

Little Bean and flower

 Little Bean and flower (Pikku Papu ja kukka)

Little Bean gets excited about gardening: he/she receives a seed. Toghether with his/her friends, bird and ladybug, they water the seed and it grows o be a beautiful flower.
In the fall the flower dies and Little Bean is sad. Luckily Bird has kept one seed.

Little Bean waters flower

Hissu, the spider, is making wool socks.

Songs of Little Bean(Pikku Papun laulut)
Poems of Little Bean are composed in to songs. The songs are composed by Soili Perkiö, who is a notable modern composer and known by all who watch Pikku Kakkonen.

Our boys' favourite is Little Bean the gardner, where the chorus is very catchy.

Little Bean and treasure -cover

Little Bean and treasure (Pikku Papu ja aarre)

Little Bean finds a message in a bottle. He understands from the message that there is a treasure somewhere. Little Bean takes a tea cup and starts to look for it. Is the treasure a string of pearls, strawberry lolly pop or what? Very exiting and the treasure is a surprise.

Father's son

Leevi Lemmitty: Isän poika 2010
Illustrations: Jukka Lemmetty
based on a 3d computer animation.


Mouse family lives in a leg of a grand piano. Father has been a boxer in his youth, now he tunes pianos. His son wants to be a ballet dancer and his father is a bit dissapointed.



One day a huge black cat captures Father Mouse and Son Mouse has to do something about it. It turns out that ballet and boxing have something in common.


Cute story about how parents want to fullfill their dream through their kids and how it always pays off to be true to your self, which isn't always easy.   And I guess every child wants to make their parent proud. I haven't seen the animation, but at least as a book the story works.

More about Isän poika.

Kettuset

Viljami's adventure at the market place

Aulikki Miettinen
Kettusten koulukirja 1991
Kettuset Majakkasaarella 1989 
Kaisa-mummin yövieraat 1988
Kettusen perheen juhlakirja 1986
Kaarlo Kettunen kutsuu kylään 1985
Viljamin toriretki 1895

Books about a small fox boy, Viljami, who lives with his father. At the other end of their house lives his grandmother. It isn’t told what has happened to the mother.

Viljami at the market place

Viljamin toriretki
(Viljami at the marketplace)

Viljami goes to the market place and gets lost. The market place is packed with different stands and Viljami has a nice adventure.

Kaarlo Kettunen's invitation

Kaarlo Kettunen kutsuu kylään
(Kaarlo Kettunen’s invitation)

Kaarlo lives in a forest and is snowed in. He uses his window to get out of the house. Viljami and his father are coming to visit him. Kaarlo goes ice fishing and prepared for the visit. When Viljami and his father arrive, it turns out that father cannot fir through the window. Kaarlo asks his neighbours for help and all of them dig out the door. Kaarlo prepares a feast for his guests.

Kaarlo Kettunen is ice fishing.

The Kettunen celebration book

 Kettusen perheen juhlakirja
(The Family Kettunen celebration book )

The different holidays and their traditions are illustrated in this book. Shrovetide, Easter, May day, Mid summer and Christmas. Kettunen’s also have a wedding, grandma’s birthday and a christening of a baby.

Midsummer at Kettunens

 

Grandma Kaisa is having a sleep over

 Kaisa-mummi yövieraat
(Spending the night at Grandma Kaisa)

Viljami and his friend Siiri-Sofia spend the night at Viljami’s grandmother and have so much fun.

Grandma Kaisa takes her guests skating.

The Kettunens at the Lighthouse island

Kettuset Majakkasaarella
(The Kettunens at the Lighthouse island)

Grandma Kaisa wants to visit her old friend at the Lighthouse island. Viljami and Siiri-Sofia get to fish and swim.

Grandma Kaisa to the rescue at the Lighthouse island.

 

Kettunens' school book

Kettusten koulukirja (The schoolbook of Kettunens)
Viljami goes to school. The book tells the story about ordinary school days.

Kettunen is a fairly common last name in Finland. In English it means little fox. I my mind and traditional Finnish fairytales foxes are always sly and sneaky. The characters in these books are soft and fluffy. I do not understand why I am so fascinated by roundness and I am attracted to these characters. Is it because I rear these type of books that I still like round characters or did I read these, because I have always liked round characters. 





 

Viljami at school

Little donkey from Hiddenland

Book cover

Lea Pennanen 1977: Piilomaan pikku aasi
Ilustrated by Maija Karma

The citizens of Hiddenland (Piilomaa) are happy donkeys, hardworking dogs and kind cats. An evil sorcerer Mukkelis Mule, the envier, moved to a nearby Secret Island (salasaari). His lazy fox servants use their binoculars to spy on Hiddenland and they get angry, because everyone is so happy. Mukkelis Mule pous raspberry juice into all streams of Hiddenland. The juice makes everyone who drinks it to fall asleep. The fox servants kidnap the donkey king and take him to the Secret Island and lock him into a tower. The donkey queen escapes and nobody knows where the king is. The donkey king writes a message to his hat and throws it out of the tower window hoping that someone will find it.

Little donkey, puppy and  black cat in
Hotel Shenanigans

Mukkelis Mule takes over and is a crappy ruler. Everyone is unhappy, they have to serve Mukkelis Mule, but he is never satisfied. Many years pass and things get worse. Far away in the mountains live a donkey mother, little donkey and a puppy in a small cottage. One night the donkey kings hat flies into the little donkeys head. All three see the message. The little donkey wants to rescue the king, but his mother says no. The little donkey and the puppy sneak away at night. The mother follows them in the morning.

The little donkey and puppy follow a path to the Razzle City (Hulinakaupunki). They meet a black cat, who sees the hat and swear loyalty to the little donkey. The group arrives to the city, the cat takes them to a Hotel Shenanigans (Hotelli Huvitus Huiputus). The hotel is full of swings, slides and ice crem stands. The cat took them there, because his friends are there. The foxes see them and a there is a huge commotion. The little donkey and his group escape.

Litle donkey and his friends fall into the "Trembling
Lantern Inn"

 The black cat’s friends take them to meet Lasse Lämppä, a scientist donkey. Lasse Lämppä is working on a telescope to seek royalty. It is not ready yet and the foxes come to his observatory. The foxes want to it into a juice ware house. Lasse Lämppä has a wind machine that blows the foxes away. The foxes will be back so the little donkey and his friends have to leave. Next the black cat takes them to the “Trembling Lantern Inn” (Väräjävän Lyhdyn majatalo), which is owned by friendly dogs. The dogs tell the little donkey, that Mukkelis Mule rhas druged everyone with juice and ice cream. The dogs suggest that little donkey leaves the city through an underground river. By the entrance to the river lives an old donkey Isaskar, who will have a boat for them. The river will take them to Juice Forest (Mehumetsä). Before little donkey can leave, the foxes capture him and take him to see Mukkelis Mule. 

Little donkey finds Aunt Rose's
magic wand

Mukkelis Mule captures them into the juice storage. Little donkey, the puppy and black cat are there only a short time, when the mother donkey rescues them. The black cat bows deeply: she is the queen donkey. Little donkey is surprised. The mother donkey tells them that she escaped with the little puppy to the montains, where the little donkey was born. Mother donkey has followed them al the way. They walk to see the old donkey Isaskar.

 Isaskar tells them that after Juice Forest they have to travel to Mirror mountain (Peilivuori), where an fox witch Picture Picture (Kuva Kuva) will try to get them lost. After the mountain they have to travel to HIHIHI-coast, where you cannot laugh. Lasse Lämppä has seenthe donkey queen through his telescope and is there to help them find the king.

The group is packing the boat and they decide to sleep. A small mouse wakes little donkey. The mouse breaks the telescope and runs of. The mouse is Mukkelis Mule’s mole. The mouse runs to Mukkelis Mule and tells all about little donkey and his company. Mukkelis Mule promises 2 kg of sugar, if the mouse shows, where they are. The group is long gone, Mukkelis Mule gets mad and the mouse gets nothing. The mouse is upset and runs to the “Trembling Lantern Inn” and tells the dogs everything.

In the Juice Valley, little donkey, puppy and black cat go for a lookout and finds a large barrel of raspberry juice that has been putting everyone to sleep. They break it and all juice runs out. When they get back to the camp: Isakar, Lasse and the mother donkey are gone. Suddenly they are taken to Rose Castle. The lady of the castle is Aunt Rose, whose magic wand the foxes have thrown away. The magic wand flew upside down so the castle is upside down. Aunt Rose keeps looking for the wand and doesn’t speak to anyone. Little donkey finds his mother, Lasse and Isaskar and decides to find the wand so they can be on their way. He finds it and all is turned right side down again. Aunt Rose is very grateful and gives them a invisibility cape. She also promises to capture every fox she sees.

The mouse that was betrayed by Mukkelis Mule finds them and tells them what Mukkelis Mule did. He can join the group. Lasse has fixed the telescope again and sees the donkey king in a tower. They hide their boat under the invisibility cape, but it gets stuck and the fox witch Picture Picture sees them. She captures them in a cave. The mouses relatives come help them and nibble a hole in the wall. Every one else gets out except Isaskar, who gets stuck in the middle. The foxes come into the cave and Isaskar kicks them. Picture Picture finds the others and locks them in a tower.

 Meanwhile the king’s birds have flown into the Razzle City. Crow Carl (Varis Vaakku)warns the townspeople not to drink juice or eat ice cream. The townspeople star chasing the foxes and go after Mukkelis Mule.

 The mice tell Picture Picture that the Mirror Mountain is made of chocolate. Mukkelis Mule has offered the witch her own chocolate as a reward. Mukkelis Mule arrives, but Picture Picture is on little donkeys side.The witch gives little donkey a mirror and sends them to the HIHIHI coast. Their boat appear and two crows are pulling it. Then the witch pours sour ice cream on Mukkelis Mule and the foxes.

On the HIHIHI coast little donkey climbs to look out for the Secret Island. Donkeys dressed in pants stop his way to Laugh Cliff (Naurukallio). They are the pantguards of the windfairy Pim. The kid fairy Pim used to gather the laughter. Now Mukkelis Mule has taken his magic mirror to control the winds. Little donkey realizes he has Pim’s mirror.

Mukkelis Mule arrives and orders little donkey to give donkey king’s hat. When he has the hat, he rules Hidden land forever. Little donkey refuses and lifts the mirror. Mukkelis Mule sees his reflection and starts to laugh. A storm arises. A twister takes little donkey to the Laugh Cliff to Pim. Little donkey gives him the mirror and Pim gives him advice: he should trust himself. Mukkeli Muuli dashes to the cliffs and reaches little donkey. The donkey throws the hat and jumps on it. The hat takes him to the Secret Island.

The royal family is unted again.

Mukkelis Mule is right behind him and the townspeople have arrived too. The donkey king sees little donkey and recognizes his hat from the tower window. The tower door is locked and Mukkelis Mule has the key. Mukkelis Mule wants to make a deal: he gets the hat and little donkey gets all the treasures in the world. Little donkey declines and starts to run towars Mukkelis Mule. He puts his head down and pushes Mukkelis Mule down. The towns people capture Mukkelis Mule and Little donkey opens the door. He tells the king who he is.

 The king and his family are taken back to Hidden Land. The king asks what should be done with Mukkelis Mule. Picture Picture wants him inside Mirror Mountain to dig up cholcolate. The townspeople want him to clean the city. Finally the king says that little donkey gets to decide. Little donkey wants Mukkelis Mule and the foxes out of the Hidden land the Picture Picture does her magic. A great party is held at Hidden Land and everyone is happy.

This story was also made as tv series.
Like many TV shows that time in Finland the pictures were still pictures that were zoomed in and out. In the book the chapters end in “and what then happens, you can hear about it later”. So ended the episodes. I do not know what I was doing, but I seldom saw two consecutive episodes and this line made me somewhat mad. I still hate tv shows that tell what is coming up after the commercial break and then they recap what happened before the adds. Very annoying. They are just filling air time!

I notices in the book that there few characters that have a name: Mukkelis Mule, Picture Picture, Isaskar, Lasse Lämppä and Aunt Rose. I am not sure what it means that the main characters are not written in capital letters: little donkey, donkey king , mother donkey and black cat. I think it is very odd.

Pupu Tupuna

Pirkko Koskimies

Many children in the 1970s and 1980 learned how to read with Pupu Tupuna. Originally the books were created for children with a hearing disability, but the characters were so sweet and clear that they attracted other children as well.

The stories were fairytale like with links to the real world. It is still unknown whether Pupu Tupuna is a boy or a girl. (This is possible, because the pronoun for he and she is the same: hän. )  Pupu Tupuna lives in a red playhouse and his/her best friend is a mouse Hippi.





The first Pupu Tupuna book  (Minne menet, Pupu Tupuna?) was  published in 1972.

Pupu Tupuna is like all children. He/she is curious, gets into trouble sometimes and always learnes


Pupu Tupuna also starred in a tv-series, where still pictures were shown and a narrator read the story.

Crocodile sweats and other animal poems.

Jukka Itkonen 2010: Krokotiili hikoaa ja muita eläinrunoja
Illustrated by Matti Pikkujämsä

Scissorhands

These animals are kind of funny: one has ears as cabbage leaves, other is all neck. The savanna is shaking and the jungle is rutling. Who does not eat porridge, or algae? What scares a crocodile? In this book African animals live their lives in full and vivid colors. A real good will book.


The book has following poems:
Ten monkeys,
Rainbow shirt,
Horse in river,
What is it?,
Lodger of wetlands,
Long trunk,
Armadillo,
Turtle,
Giraffe,
Parrot,
Scissorhands,
Scorpion,
Crocodile and children,
 Shy fish,
Hawk and Accipiter,
Bee dance, goats,
Donkey,
Is that true?,
Snail waddles,
This and that happens,
Termite’s nest,
Bat,
Hyena,
Gazelle,
Big cat sleeps,
Jaguar,
Buffalo’s brother,
Little bird poem,
Crocodile sweats,
Zebra in the sun.