Northern Brights

Kati Heljakka 2018: Northern Brights
Illustrated by Pauliina Linjama

The seasons in North are extreme: the summers are light and the winters are dark velvet and autumn is full of color. Not much left to say about spring. The animals in north gather on a fire at the first snow to reflect on the wonders of nature. Some are complaining of winter, but bear needs his sleep. Horse remembers running wild in the summer, while wolf likes nothing more than running in the snow.
In the winter you can see the northern lights and the star, which are not visible in the summer. In the north the seasons have made the animals adjust to the changes. Even though this book makes it seam the seasons are made fot the animals.  Great book to read in the mid of summer, when winter is still so far away that it is easy to romanticize.

This is what we know on the northern hemisphere. What the book would be like on the southern hemisphere, when they even celebrate Christmas in the summer? 

List of charachters

Hedgehog's Fairytale tree

 Pia Perkiö 2018: Siilin satupuu
Illustrated by Pia Sakki

The magic of the forest. Hedgehog and its friends are the main characters of this book.  The book is written in poem form, and the stories are easy to follow by the smallest listeners.

Fox is delivering messages across town, frog is preparing for a jumping competition. Rabbit offers squirrel some hot juice on their skiing trip.

In the spring hedgehog has its birthday and hugs everyone. Luckily there are enough band-aids, if the spikes are too rough.

Water goblin (vesihiisi) tells stories on Sundays at five.


Summertime makes the foxes fall in love, mole keeps a daycare for worms. (This is kind of scary, since moles eat worms. But let's not tell this to the kids. Maybe its a vegetarian mole.)

In the fall, the spiders weave a blanket, the squirrel grandpa makes porridge,the rabbi catches a train and a fox hears a lullaby.

Lovely poems and super cute illustrations. I am kind of sad, my boys think they are too old for this kind of poems, but I get my sons to read this, because there are few words and this is fast to read.

Little Darling and Star Bear

Inkeri Karvonen: Pikku-kulta ja Tähtikarhu
illustrated by Kati Vuorento

Story for every month. In January Little Darling wakes up in the middle of hibernation and meets another little bear from the stars, Star Bear.  Little Darling admires the beauty of winter and then falls back to sleep. In February the forest elf meets freezing fox and gives him a job in keeping the paths in the forest clear from snow. In return the elf gives him warm socks, mittens and scarf.

March is the time for the Blue Cat calls Kitty Lavender for dinner. They fish up gold fish from the frozen pond. They have a magical night as cats in March do.  In April the Moss- men are cleaning up their apple tree house.  In May vole Höntynen is waiting for the meadow elf to wake up the meadow. Mrs. Mouse knows that meadow elf has been frozen in and he cannot get out. Höntynen helps him out and soon the meadow is in bloom.

The bugs will rest with  flower bulbs. 

In June the elf of water plays her flute all through the night and in July the cloud plays with a small boy for many days. In August we learn about the secrets of the river.  In September the catebillar is exhausted about getting ready for winter.  He has found a sleeping place from a fence pole, which guards its sleep.

In October the sleepwhisperer has been fluffing the dirt and ironing the poppy petals for the flower bulbs. Soon the small bugs are welcome to spend the winter. In Novermber the snow lilies decorate the ponds. The book ends with December and the elfs serving animals with food.


Stories about animals and elves and the illustrations are as delicate as the wings of fairies.  I must say Kati Vuorento is one of my favourite illustrators.

Life in the iron age

Aira Savisaari and Janne Harju 2004: Possu Annikki, Ilves Ilomieli ja Karhu Ilmari : kertomus siitä kuinka karhu Ilmari takoi veden hopeasta onnen: kilkutteli ja kalkutteli, kolme päivää kolisteli

Pig Annikki, Bear Ilmari and Bobcat Ilomieli live near a birch rattling rapids. Annikki is worried about the food running out after a hard winter. She believes silver would make her happy. Bear Ilmari thinks about it and decides to forge a silvery blanket out of the silver of the water for Pig Annikki. After all he is a smith. After finnishing the blanket, it is so cold that they cannot sleep under it.

Then arrives the vikings, Fox Sinihammas the viking chief wants the blanket, but he does not have enough silver for it. He steels it along with pig Annikki's cauldron. Pig Annikki gets mad, not about the blanket but the pot. How is she supposed to make dinner without it?

All three go after the vikings, it turns out the blanket turns into water outside the home waters. The vikings return the cauldron and promise to help with the household chores. Bear Ilmari gives them three iron nails as a token of good will. They will trade in the future. Pig Annikki also realizes that silver does not bring happiness. The wind in the birch branches and the light of the sky is may be.

At the end is a list of different months in the iron age. There used to be seven of them. Some months like Wintermonth in November-December and Summermonth in June-July were longer than others.

I especially like the wording in this book: "possu Annikin peittoa oli paikattu: pitkin poloisen possun peittoa pötkötti paikka paikan päällä." It describes, how pig Annikki's blanket was patched.  I also liked the simplisity and teaching of the book. I guess in every Finn there still is a part of the iron age left. In my opinion, we don't need much.

This book has also been translated into French:Dame Cochon, messire l'Ours et le Lynx chanteur : ou comment Ilmari, l'Ours forgeron, en forgeant, martelant et battant pendant trois jours, transforma l'argent de l'eau en bonheur.

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.

Fairytale of different seasons

Ebba Varma: Vuodenaikojen satu 2003
Illustrations by Martta Wendelin

Facsimile from a booklet that was published in 1945

Poems about the season. How in the spring the earth wakes up. I wonder who read these type of publications? I asked my mother and she told me that she did not have fairytales when she was a child. They hardly had any adult books. To me this was very surprising, since my parents read many children's books to us. I always thought that my mother had read a lot of books as a child and that's why we had so many books. But that is not the case.






I also wondered, what I have given to my boys that didn't exist in the 1980s. We had electronic games (and in my mind the tab games are the same category), boardgames, books, animations. Back in the 1980s we even had a videocamera. Did the technology take such a big leap back then that it is not possible to do again?

Homeforest

Map of Homeforest

Terttu Ollikka
Illustrated by Marjaliisa Pitkäranta

Muuttolinnut saapuvat 2001
Kotimetsän siivoustalkoot 2001
Suopojan saappaanjäljet 2001
Talventaikaa Kotimetsässä 2001

Migratory birds return

Four books about Röönis. Röönis are goodhearted forest gnomes that take care of the forest.
The family consist of Mother Strawberry (mamma Mansikka)
Father Brittlegil (isä Hapero)
sisters Blueberry and Lingonberry (Mustikka and Puolukka)
Brother Chanterelle (veli Vahvero)
Aunt Cluodberry and Boletus (tädit Hilla and Tatti)

Crane comes to visit Homeforest

Migratory birds arrive 
(Muuttolinnut saapuvat)

The first book in the series is about spring and the birds returning from their migration. Mamma Strawberry is worried that Big Cold is going to rob the blueberries this year and she is going to fight the cold.

A crane, Kalle Kurki, brings greetings from the land of pharaohs.

The book has a recipe of blueberry milk by Mamma Strawberry.

Cleaning of Homeforest

Cleaning Homeforest
(Kotimetsän siivoustalkoot)

Summer arrives to Homeforest and  Mamma Strawberry organizes cleaning activities to all. Humans have brought their trash to the forest, including a broken washing machine.

The kids love the machine. It works enough to give them a good spin. 

This book has a recipe of nettle pancakes.

Hi-hii moose helps to clean the forest

Swamp boys foot prints

Swamp boys foot prints
(Suopojan saappaanjäljet)


The fall book the Röönis are picking up swamps. In their trip to the swamp, Lingonberry disappears. Crane Kalle Kurki saves her. Mamma Strawberry warns the kids about the swamps.

Rowing a boat to Perch Island

Swamps are beautiful and in the book is listed all the wonderful plants that can be found in the swamp: Golden Cloud berries, blue bog whortleberries, aromatic cranberries, soft
Hare's-tail Cotton grass and the strongly scented marsh tea.

There is also advise how to walk in swamps, without getting stuck.

Winter magic at Homeforest

Winter magic at Homeforest
(Talventaika Kotimetsässä)

The röönis are enjoying winter: sledding, staying in in front of the cosy fire and playing a version of icehockey: broom hockey.

By the fire the kids listen to Mamma Strawberry's stories, which she loves to tell. Outdoors the kids sled and make snow angels.

The frost boys are picking on the girls. The score is settled in the broom hockey match between röönis and the folks of cold.

Ice broom match