This year the Nordic Literature Week will take place on November 11th to 17th and invites children, young people and adults to a celebration in the literature. The theme is Nordic Celebration. As the Nordic Association in Denmark, Norway and Sweden celebrate their 100th anniversary this year, the Nordic Literature Week wants to highlight the Scandinavian literature and therefore this year's selected reading books come from Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Celebrations are important events in people's lives by giving structure to life and being life-renewing, by repeating themselves at specific intervals or for marking an important event in life. Therefore, celebrations are also important and often recurring in the literature. And who does not like to read about a well-described feast or a gorgeous ornate party filled with hopes and expectations?
This year's reading books reflect all the theme Nordic Celebration. In “Pippi Longstocking” by Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, youngsters will read about how Pippi celebrates her birthday in Villa Villekulla, where both horse and monkey take place at the table. In the novel by Norwegian Jostein Gaarder Sophie's World - youngsters will read about Sophie's birthday and will enjoy a philosophical garden party, which offers both coffee, speech and a little surrealism. Adult readers will take place at the table of a French feast, which will be enjoyed until the last bite, presented by Danish writer Karen Blixen novel Babette's Feast.
This year's artwork is created by the Faroese children's book author and artist Bárður Óskarsson. He won the Nordic Council's Children's and Youth Literature Prize 2018 for the picture book 'Træið', which he himself wrote and illustrated.
Read more about the project https://www.nordisklitteratur.org/en