Päivi Heikkilä-Halttunen has interviewed Pirkko-Liisa Perttula, who has edited several collections of anecdotes. She collects jokes from children and from written sources. Some jokes are short-lived whereas others dating back as far as the 19th century still make you laugh. Children like to trick adults when they tell them jokes but according to Perttula, adults and children laughing together is far better. Heikkilä-Halttunen has also interviewed Jukka Laajarinne, who has compiled a mock epic called Varsinainen kalavale. The book is a puzzle made up of thousands of stories, which the author has interconnected by writing texts in between that bind the bits together.

Päivi Nordling introduces the series Signal from Otava, which comprises mainly translated novels. The books in the series deal with the darker side of adolescence, such as drugs, crime and violence, but many of them also deal with politics. New this year is Finland-Swedish Annika Luther’s novel Skogen som gud glömde (translated into Finnish as Kadotettu metsä), which is more of an adventure story than a problem novel. Nordling concludes that since young people find life in a welfare society boring, they have to create chaos themselves. She predicts that this Finnish wild life adventure will also become a success internationally.

Sisko Ylimartimo has visited the London settings of Peter Pan and presents the new jubilee editions of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (2005) and Peter Pan and Wendy (2004) illustrated by Arthur Rackham and Robert Ingpen.

Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä analyses H. C. Andersen’s story The Shadow from the point of view of Jungian archetypes and compares it to, for instance, the stories of German romantics E. T. A. Hoffman and Adalbert von Chamisson. She argues that these texts have things in common, yet they also differ in many respects. In Andersen’s tale there are, for example, no external seducers and the educated protagonist looses his shadow without doing anything wrong. Neither does Andersen’s learned man desire or envy his shadow. Heiskanen-Mäkelä interprets the story to be about double standards of morality. It depicts the artist community in those days, which declared an admiration for the romantic ideals, yet coveted money and fame. As an upstart, who had to make his own way from rags to riches, Andersen felt both like a shadow and an educated man and the story attempts to give credit to both sides of his character.

Bastian Fähnrich has explored stories written in school by 11 to 13-year-old children from the point of view of the ethics of virtue. Both girls’ and boys’ stories deal with, for instance, friendship, friendliness, helpfulness, righteousness, care and compassion, as well as with the opposite motifs of discrimination, bullying, loneliness, inequality and violence. The children considered human relationships and man’s relations to nature. In the stories written by girls, goals where met through negotiation. In the boys’ stories results were achieved through fighting.

Kerttu Jokela has visited the fairy tale museum in Ljungby and taken part in the local story telling festivities.

In the news section we learn about the most recent awards given by the Finnish illustrator’s organisation. The Kieku award goes to Alexander Lindeberg (born 1917) for his life’s work and the Kaiku award goes to the young illustrator Erika Kovanen. 
 

Translation: Maria Lassén-Seger