Versboken by Britt G. Hallqvist (1969)

Moomin by Tove Jansson

What could be better than starting 2009 with Moomin and his friends? Have been looking for these stories in the larger size hardbacks, since that's what they looked like when I was a kid. Luckily Swedish publisher Alfabeta took after Drawn and Quarterly's beautiful hardback editions recently.



Drawn and Quarterly's Moomin page here, with a preview.

The Horror #1

My grandmother was persistent when I was a kid:

1. She always did my eggs runny although I hated it (I still shiver at the mere thought)
2. She kept on reading Struwwelpeter (Pelle Snusk) to me although it scared the s**t out of me (and still kind of does)

Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894) was written as a children's book and I bet the parents of the mid-1840's thought it was really practical and nice to teach their kids some good ol' morals. What good it was to me I'm much less sure of, I was scared to death by Slovenly Peter and even more by the tailor in The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb:



"The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, red-legged scissorman.
Oh! children, see! the tailor's come
And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb.

Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out - Oh! Oh! Oh!
Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast;
That both his thumbs are off at last."

It did not make me quit sucking my thumbs, neither to stop biting my nails.

Read it all here.

Read a new take on the stories here.

Alban - popmuffa för små hundar by Barbro Lindgren

Swedish children's book from 1972 that I used to love as a kid. Alban is a dog with one ear hanging who wants to die when his brother impresses their common love interest Melitta by dancing on one hind leg.

A million thanks to the wonderful ladies at the Library who helped me find it!