Tag Archives: Three stories by Jan Lööf

I was not going to write a post on this but “Gubby”, and even the other boys and one girl, really loved the books I came home with, mainly for them, so I thought I might show them here as well. Who knows, Swedes reading this, might actually be inspired and able to find copies still?

My greatest find that I became most excited about, was the book I tried to buy in 2012, when we were heading out to Normandy. It’s a book that we have borrowed plenty of times at the library but somehow I have never got around to buying it for us. Well, in 2012, I tried, in order to take it with us on our trip. My intention was to stop at Monet’s Giverny, on the way to Paris, after our week in Normandy. As things turned out, “Cookie” and I were voted down! The two of us were the only ones that wanted to go see where Monet used to live, who wanted to see the lovely bridge, the pond, the water lilies… But the saddest part was that the book was out of print! So, when I saw it on the book sale, I of course had to pick up our own copy at last. I love the book (Linnea in Monet’s garden) and the combination of Christina Björk’s and Lena Andersson’s story about Linnea intermixing with facts on Monet, his paintings and his house with garden. To me, the drawn pictures of Linnea and her friend, who goes to see Giverny and the paintings in Paris, are so typically Swedish. It’s no wonder that this book has been translated in to English because it truly is very pretty. This particular book-find at the sale, also came with an extra bonus, which I did not notice until I came home. It also includes the 30 minute Television program that was made for Swedish TV, many years ago. So, even though “Gubby” being too young to appreciate this book, he will certainly love to see the film. Clearly, the one of my children who enjoyed us getting the book the most, was “Cookie”, aged 13.

The book that “Gubby” is completely and utterly besotted with was one I did not even notice the first day, that I attended the sale. Maybe it was sold out, at that bookshop? I went again to another sister shop, the 26th, and that is when I did the next find.  “My Animal World”. I saw its possibility’s since it is both a book, a puzzle, perfect for small hands and especially for a child who is behind in its speech development. So far he sleeps with his beloved book, hand on it, so noone can take it away from him, and he likes to read the books to US. All the little books have the same order of things. First it tells the name of the animal, second spread says where the animal lives, third the name of the animal’s child or in case it does not have a special name, something specific about the baby …, the fourth tells what the animal eats and the final one, what the animal sounds like and what it is called. Perfect! “Gubby” knows exactly which hole to put the book back in to, since the pictures are printed at the bottom of the box, as seen above. It truly was a book that my boys find very exciting, even the 10-year-old, but their brother doesn’t like to share it!

The other wonderful book was  the one called “Three songs” by Catarina Kruusval. It has three Swedish children’s songs in it, with one sentence on every spread and a cute picture of course relating to the sentence. For “Gubby”, but also for “Boo”, it makes it easier to learn songs, since they finally can put a picture to the words, and remember it better. I love Catarina Krusvaal’s books and drawings so much. Also something I associate with being a typically Swedish look. “Gubby” and I have been sitting singing now all week. He loves the three songs that have pictures, but he is also warming up to the final song, which was just one spread all together. All in all you get four traditional songs, that all of us have grown up with.

The fourth find, was too advanced for “Gubby”, five years old, with late speech development. But the older children love it. I am a newcomer really, to Jan Lööf’s world. Or, not really, but for some reason I have not liked his pictures before so I have avoided his work. Now I do like it though. Last autumn, when it stood clear that “Boo” was going to have a real difficult time learning how to read, I first invested in a card game, with Jan Lööf’s alphabet pictures. For a while there, we played it every day. You can see pictures of the card game, on my twitter. Then when he still would not crack the reading code, even having a difficult time remembering the names of the letters, then I bought a Jan Lööf alphabet puzzle. Lovely! Now the book sale had a book with three of his stories in it. Since “Boo” really loves when I read to him, I bought it and hope of course that soon, he will be able to read it himself!?

The stories are exciting. One being about the little boy who has a grandfather who claims to having been a pirate captain. They go in search of a treasure, which an Arab pirate named Omar, ceased many years previous. Instead of getting the treasure, the grandfather is captured by Omar and the grandfather gets put in a prison, but the boy rescues him. Their road back home, is a hazardous one.  The second story is about a red apple and is both hilarious and shows how one thing can lead to another. What is it they say, if a butterfly flaps it’s wings on one side of the earth, then… The third story is a really funny one about “Scrap-Nisse”. This little boy Kalle, is going to be baby-sat by Scrap-Nisse. The latter has bought an old paddle-steamer, that he intends to restore and go to Africa in. His friend Kvarnsten is going with him and he is somewhat of a magician, Scrap-Nisse says. They restore the boat for a week and then Scrap-Nisse and Kvarnsten sets off for Africa, but with Kalle as a stow-away. One hour out, Kalle sees Kvarnsten trying to conjure up a storm that will bring them to Africa quickly. It works! But Scrap-Nisse discovers Kalle. He has abandoned the steering wheel, and their boat crashes. The three of them crawls up a mountain-side while the two men tell Kalle that they are in Africa. They find a hut where they lay down to sleep and when they wake up, a zebra has entered the hut. But when they walk outside, they discover that they are in the city’s zoo, in the Savannah part.

There are soooooo many wonderful children’s books on the sale. But I usually try to follow the rule, that children tire of one thing quickly and then move on to the next. For the most part, I try to borrow children’s books at the library. Then you can change the inventory in your book-case often enough for a child’s taste and attention span. To get books for the book-devouring-aged children and teenagers, is no point at all, unless it is Harry Potter! They read everything else often too quickly, only once and never again. But as far as Harry Potter, I have seen them all, read them over and over again. Even if they are priced right, it is no fun to see a book finished in two-three hours and then never looked at again.