Every year, The Nordic Bookworm creates new inspiration material for picture books nominated for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. This year’s exciting selection covers everything from nuclear war to magical summer days with the family.
On The Nordic Bookworm’s website, www.bokslukaren.org, you can download the brand-new inspiration material for this year’s five nominated picture books.
The material is intended for reading motivators, such as teachers, educators, and librarians, as well as for anyone curious about how to participate in our shared Nordic treasure of language and picture books in a relevant and pedagogical way in the Nordic languages.
If you want to delve into a story where the narrative is driven primarily by sensory and atmospheric images, you should choose Sara Lundberg’s Ingen utom jag (No One but Me). With the material for this book, children have the opportunity to both interpret and retell what they think happens during this magical summer day.
Kai Dahle Nyhus’ ‘Det som finnes og det som er borte’ (What Exists and What Is Gone) is a story about how the escape from war affects our daily lives, seen from a child’s perspective. With this material, you can use symbols and images to spark highly topical conversations about the current state of the world.
Molly Wittus’ Wonga og rævene (Wonga and the Foxes) is a fantastical glimpse into what can happen when we open our homes and hearts to new people – and in this case, foxes. In the inspiration material, the questions lead to reflections on how we act when we encounter the unknown, and above all, how we adapt to one another.
With the material for Linda Bondestam’s Chop Chop – En tapper jordbos berättelse (Chop Chop – A Brave Earthling’s Tale), you get the opportunity to explore philosophical questions on a child’s level about the increased presence and role of robots in society, as well as what this might mean for us humans.
In Kesän ainoa kaunis päivä (The Only Beautiful Day of the Summer) by Maria Vilja, we follow a family on an outing and all the fickle emotions and dynamics that can arise when practical matters come into play. The Nordic Bookworm’s material inspires how to interpret and analyze the characters’ emotional lives through the images, together with the children.
All inspiration material is available in at least five Nordic languages and always includes four different types of creative tasks tailored for the 0–12 age group. With this year’s material, we invite reading motivators and other curious readers to dive into the fantastic world of Nordic picture books at www.bokslukaren.org.
The Nordic Bookworm is a long-term reading promotion project initiated and run by Nordic Culture Point.
Contact information:
Jana Šajin, Project Developer
jana.sajin@nkk.org
+358 50 346 0071