Small naturebook

Mauri Kunnas 2018: Pieni luontokirja

Aaah! Spring! Well not winter any way. My favourite children's author has made a nature book.

The book starts with birds, because the summer isn't here until the swallows have arrived. There are many others that come sooner like larks, finches and cranes.

Then comes bugs, plants, trees get their own section since we are know for our forests. Berries are next, I don't think people utilize enough the berries we have.

Animals are the last section (I know: bugs are animals, too). This section covers mammals, reptiles (we have two: snakes and salamanders) and frogs.

The bugs have gain a new appreciation due to research showing
we need them, if we want to eat.

This is great book and it does not bother me one bit that the pictures are drawn. Even the photos are not always accurate. It is really hard to recognize a bird.  I have lived most of my life in the countryside and I have spent many hours watching the birds and plants. My dad even quizzes me about the 30 different type of trees he has on his land.

It would be sad if the kids in the cities never learned to tell the difference between different birds.

Mr. Clutterbuck's singing lullaby book

Mauri Kunnas 2015: Herra Hakkaraisen soiva iltalaulukirja
edited by Maarit Pöytsiä

Song by illustrated by images from Mauri Kunnas' books. Most of them are traditional Finnish songs, but the books also includes the famous lullaby by Johannes Brahms and many Swedish songs that have been translated into Finnish.


List of songs: 
Aa-tuuti pientä / trad.
Ro, ro, barnet, suomi (Aa, aa, Heikki) / Tegnér, Alice
Aa, aa allin lasta / trad.
Tuutilullaa lasta / trad.
Iltalaulu / Nyberg, Mikael
Unilintu / trad.
Nuku, nuku nurmilintu / Hannikainen, P. J.
Nuku, nuku lapsi / trad.
Tuu, tuu tupakkarulla / trad.
Tuutulaulu / trad.
Tuuditan tulisoroista / trad.
Lennä, lennä leppäkerttu / trad.
Kuu ja tähdet / trad.
Pii, pii pikkuinen lintu / trad.
Pikkuinen poika / trad.
Kotini / trad.
 Lasse liten, suomi (Pikku Lauri) / Lithenius, Sofie
Körö-körö kirkkoon / trad.
Kehdon ääressä / trad.
Paimenen syyslaulu / Hannikainen, P. J.
Ihme ja kumma / Pokela, Marjatta Satu (Pokela) / Pokela, Marjatta
Tanssivarpaat / Perkiö, Soili
Väriarvoituksia / Perkiö, Soili
Aurinkoa, lintuja ja ystäviä / Kaikkonen, Markku
Ihahaa / Meritähti, Marjatta
Pieni tytön tylleröinen / trad.
Frogg, suomi (Saku Sammakko) / Foley, Dick & Flick, Bob & Kirkland, Mike & Paine, John
Kolme varista / trad.
Mummin luona / Hannikainen, P. J.
Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen / Helismaa, Reino
Sairas karhunpoika / Malmstén, Georg
Mirri sairastaa / Hannikainen, P. J.
Oravan pesä / Hannikainen, P. J.
 Sömanden og stjernerne, suomi (Tähti ja meripoika) / Karlsson, Bror
Etkö ymmärrä / Ohls, Petter
Veden pinnan alla / Meritähti, Marjatta
Intiaanien laulu / trad. Buffalo-Jim / Ollaranta, Jorma
Suutarinemännän kehtolaulu / trad.
Vaggvisa för en liten grön banan, suomi (Kehtolaulu pienelle vihreälle banaanille) / Riedel, Georg
Pikkunoitien iltalaulu / Memrik, Marjukka
Trollmors vaggsång, suomi (Peikkoäidin kehtolaulu) / Holmberg, Margit
Videvisan, suomi (Pienelle pajulle) / Tegnér, Alice
Hyvin hiljaa / Ohls, Petter
Unihiekkaa / Siikavire, Jukka Nukku-Matti / Malmstén, Georg
Sininen uni / Rautavaara, Tapio
Laulut, lauluääni, piano, op49. Nro 4, Wiegenlied, suomi (Kehtolaulu) / Brahms, Johannes
Loppulaulu / trad.

Summer at Doghill

Mauri Kunnas 2015: Kesä Koiramäessä

The Doghill kids are waiting anxiously for summer. The watch the different signs of it including swallows. This summer they have a visitor from the city to spend the whole summer with them.

This book continues the story of the Doghill farm. The Doghill folk show us, what kind of summer activities people used to have in the 19th century.

I can practically hear the birds,  taste the wild straberrys, smell the flowers and feel the waves in my toes. The hail in book reminded me of the hail storms when I was a child.

Bonfire of Whitsuntide

Why coudn't the school books be as much fun as this book? I bet my boys learned something of the Finnish history and customs easily.  This is also s great book to read in the darkness of November.

Pawchester Tales

Mauri Kunnas:
Elusive Elvis 2003
Lucky’s Best-Ever Xmas Present 2003
Seven Aunts and a Hidden Treasure 2004
Hurricane Harry and the Genie in the Bottle 2010
Mr. Clutterbuck’s Seven Wonders 2008


Pawchester Tales are stories about Mr. Clutterbuck’s home town. The town has many characters and naturally Mr. Clutterbuck shortly visits every story.

Postman Eppu is a littel sad

Elusive Elvis
The first story’s main character is a shy mailman who knows all about Elvis. Pawchester is preparing for the tradi
tional summer fair. At the closing party, everybody is looking forward to hearing Pawchester’s finest little rock band – Ince True and the Mentals. But the band has a problem: they do not have a lead singer. How to get a shy person to perform?

Lucky's Best X-mas Presnt

Lucky’s Best-Ever Xmas Present
The second Pawcherster Tales book is a Christmas story. Little Lucky has every toy and gadget imaginable. His dad thinks that the more toys a child has the happier the child is. Not so. Lucky’s dad has been buying Christmas presents since August. Does Lucky get the best Christmas present ever?

Grandpa Drakula digging for a treasure

Seven Aunts and a Hidden Treasure
Seven Aunts and a Hidden treasure is the third story in the series. Mr. Clutterbuck’s great grandmother Cicely Clutterback turns 100 years and all Mr. Clutterbuck’s aunts join the festivities. Aunt Effie tells a story about a long lost treasure and all the kids get excited. A greaet Hunt begins. The story ends in Brazil and the Wolrd Cup in Soccer.

Grandpa Drakula wants to see Spiritus Butelli Babylonicus

Hurricane Harry and the Genie in the Bottle
Book nr. 4 is Hurricane Harry and the Genie in the Bottle. The travelling carnival has come to Pawchester with the famous motorcycle daredevil Hurricane Harry! Not all is happy with this. Granpa Dracula just wants to see the genie in the bottle, Spiritus Butelli Babylonicus at the Phantom Cabaret. In a turn of events, Hurricane Harry breaks the bottle and the genie escapes. The whole town is in chaos.

Pawcherts townspeople in Rio de Janeiro

Mr. Clutterbuck’s Seven Wonders
The Pawchester townspeople also attend Mr Clutterbuck’s adventure in Mr. Clutterbuck’s Seven Wonders (Herra Hakkaraisen seitsemän ihmettä) Pawchester department store has a raffle, where the grand price is to name a place in the world to visit. Seven lucky people get to travel to all these places.

Silly picture dictionary

Mauri Kunnas 2013

Mauri Kunnas' colorful characters teach words in English. But the book works the other way, too. If you know English, this is the book to start learning Finnish.

The book has different themes, such as colors and holidays. And always so practical vocabulary to talk about pirates and ghosts. We use those every day :).

Colors

Pirate vocabulary

Canine Kalevala

Mauri Kunnas 1992

Finland celebrates Kalevala  day on February 28th. Many versions have been made of Kalevala, but my favourite is the Canine Kalevala. The pictures are funny and the story is not so dead serious as the original. Some of the images are versions of the national treasures made by Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

In short, Kalevala is an adventure epic of Väinämöinen. He has a little bit of woman trouble and he bumps heads with many younger men.


This book has also been published in English.

Väinämöinen meets Antero Vipunen, a giant

More pictures of the book.  The book's background by Finnish Literature Society. There is also a synopsis of the story.

 If you are in real rush, watch this video made by Scott Sandwich about the Kalevala, sounds a little like the Game of Thrones.

Seven dogbrothers

being a doggerel version of The seven brothers, Aleksis Kivi's classic novel from 1870
Mauri Kunnas 2002, English translation 2003

I admit, I am a bad Finn: I have not read Aleksis Kivi’s Seven brothers.

Here is my explanation why:  I lived in Nurmijärvi (Aleksis Kivi’s home community) all through comprehensive school and high school. Every year in October ( The national Aleksis Kivi day is October 10^th) we read extracts from Seven Brothers –book. Every single year. The same extracts. So I have never read the entire book, only these extracts. So I know how the brothers went to school, escaped the bulls to a giant rock, were picked on the other village boys and so on.  To my defense I must say that I have seen Aleksis Kivi’s play Nummisuutarit at least twice in Taborinvuori, I remember poems written by Aleksis Kivi (Some of them is part of Seven Brothers). 

This image could be exhibited in a museum.

Back to the book, Aleksis Kivi’s Seven Brothers was written in 1873 and  is one of  the first novels written in Finnish. Runeberg and the others wrote in Swedish. So the book is notable. 

Mauri Kunnas has told the story again and illustrated it very nicely. The book is about seven boys who for one thing do not wish to learn to read. Since we do not have cliff notes in Finland, but this children’s version is a lighter version of the book. 




This is written at the back of the book: 
"Learning simply will not penetrate the thick skulls of the canine Jukola brothers. Should the young dogs live free in the wilds or in the community, adhering to the civilised ways of men? This is the constant wrestling match that occupies the minds of Juhani, Tuomas, Aapo, Simeon, Timo, Lauri, and little Eero. The original novel of The Seven Brothers is the masterpiece by Finlands national writer Aleksis Kivi, a work still entirely topical some 130 years after its first appearance. Mauri Kunnass canine version of this much-loved Finnish classic will delight both children and older readers."

Santa Claus

Kunnas, Mauri 1981
In the 2001 edition is a preface from Mr. Mauri Kunnas, where he tells the behind the scenes story of how the book came to be and how it became an international best seller.

This book describes what happens in Korvatunturi all year round. Beautiful pictures of the reindeer pasture in Lapland.

Kunnas also tells us how the elves spend their free time: they have theatre club, brass band and they fish.

In this book is also the Christmas chore in Korvatunturi which include gift wrapping,

A nice addition to us Finns is the page where is described how Santa is viewed in different countries.

The last section is about hhat happens, when the gifts are delivered:the elves attend Christmas church, there is a Christmas pageant, sauna of course and naturally the elves eat a christmas dinner. A very lovely book.

Doghill Christmas Church

Kunnas, Mauri 1997

There was one spread about Christmas at Doghill in the Winter in Doghill book. This Christmas Church book is a small book that describes the festivities of the 19th century Finland.

The profits of this book were donated to the Church of Pyhä Olavi, which was burned to the ground by a mad man.









The book is beautifully illustrated and the story is simple yet educational even for the young kids.

Twelve gifts for Santa

Kunnas, Mauri 1987

One of the most beloved Kunnas books.
Little Willie wants to give gifts to Santa. There is still 12 days to Christmas and he decides to give a gift every day.

The gifts are:
1.Clean the library
2.Knit a cap
3.Make an ice rink
4.Make a snow reindeer
5.Remove snow from the yard
6.Win a ski race and gie the price, a Swiss army knife, to Santa
7.Make a Christmas card
8.Stop time
9.Bake gingerbread
10.Sing Christmas carols
11.Decorate a Christmas tree
12.Can’t think of anything
One of these is the best gift Santa has ever received. Mauri Kunnas has portraited Santa very well. I admire the patience Santa has, when little Willie has made an ice rink in front of the outside door, or when he has stopped all clocks in the village.

A lovely all red book about the meaning of giving gifts.

The Book of Finnish elves

Kunnas, Mauri 1979

This is the first Mauri Kunnas book. It tells about the different elves that guarded the household buildings.


If the elves were treated with respect, they would behave and even help the people. But if they felt they were disrespected, the consequenses could be unimaginable.

Elves lived already before Santa Claus. Mostly they stayed out of sight and appeared only night time. This is a book collects some of the stories that were told about elves.

Fiddler elf 
 The landowner has enough of the fiddle playing and loses temper, so does the elf. End result: no one sleeps.
Ceiling Feetu
This elf is used to getting bread from the matron of the house. A new, greedy maid takes the bread and Feetu gets none. Needless to say there was a huge mess afterward.




Other stories include: Home elf Sarapäkki,  angry Elf woman, sauna Elf Nokinokka, grain elves fighting,Grain elf and buttons, barnelves new clothes, stable elf and beans, drying barn and bear, mill elf and elves Christmas.

Basically this book tells about old time beliefs and stories that were told, when there was no tv, just like the Koiramäki books. This book was presented in tv as an animation in the childrens program Pikku Kakkonen.

Doghill Martha and the Chirstmas pageant

Kunnas, Mauri 2000

Martha and her mother visit Porvoo just before Christmas. They catch a star boy performance that does not go exactly as planned. The story line is guaranteed Kunnas style. Again a wonderful book for children to “accidently” learn a little bit of history.

The Starboys (Tiernapojat - the Finnish word comes from  Swedish sjtärne meaning star) are originally from central Europe, to Finland it came in the 18th century. The musical play was first played in Oulu, where it then spread to other parts of the country.

Characters of Tiernapojat

The Finnish version contains a praise to Tsar Alexander. I have seen the play several times and I have never heard praise. Maybe it was edited during the cold war.  In any case this book has the lyrics, notes and chords of one version of the play. It is also pointed out in the book that there are several versions of this play.

Wintery Porvoo

Hui kauhistus

One Spooky Night And Other Scary Stories

Kunnas, Mauri 1985

I am not a horror fan. Halloween decorations at my home are more cute than scary. This book was my first contact with ghosts, vampires and yetis.  The book begins in a dark and gloomy manor, where the butler is ready to go to bed, before the ghosts wake up…..

Well, they did. And spent an ordinary day washing dishes, scaring people. Other characters are Count Creepy, a vampire that has terrible tooth ache;  Witch Snaggletooth, who can’t really fly a broom and many others my favourite is  Shelly the Skeleton,  who loves dancing until she meets a dog, who sees only delicious dancing bones.

Tales from Doghill

Kunnas, Mauri 2007

This book introduces some of the folk tales that people used to tell, when there was no TV. The urban legends before the digital age.

There is a new hired man in Doghill. He plays tricks on the kids and tells stories of fairytale creatures that live among us. He scares the kids few times, but in the end he learns his lesson.

The original title is “Koiramäen lapset ja Näkki”. The Finnish name Näkki refers to the spirit of water that was used to scare children not to play alone near water. Other stories include a wife that is afraid of thunder, a golden treasure that was exposed by white fire. My favorite is the undertaker that has a nick name ferless. Well he is afraid of the preacher’s wife.  Which in my opinion is scarier that all the ghosts and spirits.

More pictures at Mauri Kunnas’s web site.