Fourteen nominees for the 2023 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize
The Swedish authors and illustrators Teresa Glad and Sara Lundberg are nominated for the 2023 prize. The winner will be announced in Oslo on 31 October.
Excerpt from norden.org
Farbröder by Teresa Glad, Graphic documentary novel, Natur & Kultur, 2022
Children live mostly in the here and now, but they think a lot – about the fear of being excluded, about how the world fits together, about the meaning of life, about other existential questions, and about their distant, alien future as adults.
In Farbröder (“Uncles”, not published in English), Teresa Glad addresses these questions by interviewing nine real-life uncles about the dreams and experiences of their childhood and how these have shaped their lives.
Glömdagen by Sara Lundberg. Picture book, Mirando Bok, 2021
In Glömdagen (“The Day of Forgetting”, not published in English), Sara Lundberg shows once again that she is a master of putting the child’s perspective in focus. This can be seen on the cover, where a parent bends towards a child in order to meet the child. The child’s gaze is locked with the parent’s, and the parent’s gaze is locked with the child’s.
Lundberg writes with warmth, and recognition radiates from the text. It’s a day when nothing goes as anyone had imagined or perhaps even wanted. It’s a day meant to be forgotten right from the outset, but a day which no one will ever forget.
Fourteen Nordic picture books, children’s books and youth novels have been nominated for the 2023 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. This year’s nominees offer us timeless and life-affirming adventures where diversity is not a message in itself, but a premise that strengthens the credibility of the story.
The Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize was awarded for the first time at the Session of the Nordic Council in 2013 along with the Council’s other prizes. It represents the culmination of the culture ministers’ long-held ambition to boost the profile of literature for children and young people in the Nordic Region.