“A World Class Book” 2016

During the period from March 29 to April 8 Stockholm county libraries have exhibited the contributions to the contest A World Class Book by schoolclasses in Stockholm. The competition is part of the reading promotion project Barn&Böcker (Children&Books) which is a co-operation between Education Department of Stockholm City, Stockholm Public Library, outdoor museum Skansen and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The project is part of Stockholm city’s language project aiming to attract children to read the works of many authors from different parts of the world.

This year more than 200 school classes from preschool pupils up to twelve-year-olds within Stockholm City have participated, each with it´s competition entry  within this year’s theme Joy and Sorrow consisting of text and images from books they have read.

Right now a jury is assembled to choose the winning contributions for every participating grade. The award ceremony will be held at Skansen outdoor museum on May 24-25. The winning contributions will be exhibited at the “Brage Hall” at Skansen, but can also be seen here!

Lotta Hansson
Project Manager
Stockholm City Library

Jury members are studying contributions from 9-10-year-olds. Photo: Lotta Hansson

Meg Rosoff to Sweden

Author Meg Rosoff is coming to Sweden to receive the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). The Award Week begins May 23 and ends with the award ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on May 30. 

“That´s amazing, I have to sit down, I can´t believe that” was Rosoff’s reaction when Jury Chairman Boel Westin informed the American writer living in London that she is the laureate of the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature.

The program for the award week includes meetings with press and media, meetings with children and young adults and a visit to Astrid Lindgren’s childhood home Näs in Vimmerby. On May 25, Meg Rosoff meets the public in a conversation with ALMA jury member Maria Lassén-Seger at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. The event is open to the public and free of charge.

The preceding week Meg Rosoff will do a flying visit to Stockholm to participate in the talk show Babel on Swedish National Television. 

The award week ends with the award ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall lead by writer, artist and City Librarian Katti Hoflin:

– The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is the largest award for children’s and young adult literature. to be the compere of the tribute for this year´s laureate Meg Rosoff is an honour and a joy for an old warrior for children’s and young adult culture like me.

This year’s award is presented by Swedish Minister for Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature. The award, which amounts to SEK 5 million, is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible. The award is designed to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature. The UN convention of rights of the child is the foundation of our work. An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by institutions and organisations all over the world. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.

Johan Palmberg about translating the Japanese Ronia to Swedish

A huge part of my working hours during the last six months have been devoted to the translation and dubbing of the Japanese film adaptation of Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, which now runs at the Children’s Channel on Swedish National Television.  Our family has worked closely with the translation crew to ensure that the language remains as close to Astrid Lindgren’s original as possible. It´s been terribly interesting of course, however I´ll not be too keen on reading the Ronia book again in the near future.

The TV series, directed by Gōro Miyazaki, is extremely faithful to the book edition. The lines are often exact quotes from the original. That´s great of course, but it creates a linguistic problem: when translated, the spoken Japanese language consists of more words than the Swedish language. Which means that there are many more mouth movements in a phrase like for example “You have the knife!” in Japanese, than in Swedish. And still, the Swedish words are supposed to fit into the mouths of what the Japanese cartoon characters are saying. This has resulted in endless discussions about whether it´s better to say “The knife Birk, you have it!” or “I know you have the knife!” Or how often it´s natural for Ronia to address the person she speaks to by saying his or her name (the correct answer to this is “not in the beginning of every sentence”), and if that particular opening of Ronia’s mouth can be interpreted as a laugh, yawn or a silent astonishment.

The few times when the series adds scenes that are not in the book have really been a challenge to us. That is often about the robber’s doings, and as they in fact are robbers the scenes are mostly about bickering and small fights.  Then you just want to be able to use more variety of phrases than I hope you fall into Hell’s Gap!! (approx. ”Far åt pipsvängen!” in Swedish) over and over again. Fortunately we have this amazing archive consisting of many of Astrid Lindgren’s notes for research and preparations for story content. Eventually, we found these booklets:

The red booklet is Astrid Lindgren’s own script for the Swedish film adaptation of Ronia by Swedish director Tage Danielsson back in the early 80s. The blue booklet is simply named “Ronia – extra readings”, where Astrid Lindgren has written down her thoughts on what the scenes should contain, and examples on alternative lyrics and lines if the existing is not working. The best catch however, is this list of robber’s insults to be used “where and when and by whom it may fit”. These homemade insults are impossible to translate since they do not really exist in the Swedsih vocabulary.

And suddenly you find yourself desperately looking for scenes where you have the chance to add words like ”pissedräng”, ”skitbagge” eller ”rackelhane” (an attempt to literary translation: “piss-lad”, “crap-bugg” and “ rascal – rooster“).

Johan Palmberg is a literary agent at the Astrid Lindgren company Saltkråkan and the great grandson of Astrid Lindgren. He is also a member of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award jury.

Well-attended lecture about the works of Meg Rosoff

Here´re a few photos of yesterday’s lecture at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books. Jury member Maria Lassén-Seger talked about the works of Meg Rosoff, a lecture much appreciated by the audience.

ALMA Jury member Maria Lassén-Seger and Karin Mossed, librarian at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books.

Lillemor Torstensson, Manager at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books introduces Maria Lassén-Seger.

“This is a dark novel and it´s challenging as it is about what war does to people.” Maria Lassén-Seger about How I Live Now.

Reactions and comments

Have a look at our videos from yesterday. Did you miss the announcement and the presentation of Meg Rosoff? Have a look at the announcement here and the following presentation made by jury member Maria Lassén-Seger here.

 

 

Empathy for young people

Sweden’s Minister for Culture and Democracy Alice Bah Kuhnke comments this year’s Laureate, Meg Rosoff.

– Astrid Lindgren always took part for the young and I’m very pleased that the jury once again is rewarding a writer who so deeply expresses empathy for young people who have difficulties in settling in the adult world. Her books reflect young people’s thoughts about themselves and their idea about the world.

“I am overwhelmed and honoured”

Meg Rosoff, Laureate of the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award:

“I am overwhelmed and profoundly honoured to be the recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial award for 2016. As a child I modelled myself on Pippi Longstocking – desperate to grow up brave enough to sail the seven seas, strong enough to lift a horse, unconventional enough to live by my own rules.”

Read the full comment

​The laureate of the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is Meg Rosoff

Author Meg Rosoff was born in in Boston, United States in 1956. She has lived and worked in London for many years. The jury’s citation reads:

Meg Rosoff’s young adult novels speak to the emotions as well as the intellect. In sparkling prose, she writes about the search for meaning and identity in a peculiar and bizarre world. Her brave and humorous stories are one-of-a-kind. She leaves no reader unmoved.

Meg Rosoff made her authorial debut in 2004 with the dystopian YA novel How I Live now, which became an immediate success. Since then she has written six more YA novels, several picture books, and a novel for adults. Her collected body of work is richly varied and profoundly affecting for readers of all ages.

Rosoff writes about young people in the borderlands between childhood and adult life who face difficult trials in their quests to find themselves. At times they are pushed to the brink of the unbearable and beyond. Her protagonists battle questions of identity and sexuality and are thrown involuntarily into chaotic situations. Like Astrid Lindgren, Rosoff empathizes completely with young people and is utterly loyal to them. The adult world, when it appears, remains on the periphery. She uses concrete, vibrant language, whether she is describing a landscape, a piece of clothing, or the groceries in the pantry. She infuses darkness with humor to produce stylistic masterpieces.

In What I was (2007), questions of body, identity, and gender, the confusions of falling in love, and the desire and sexuality of the young all come to a head as the narrator sets out to find himself and choose a path different from the one laid out for him by the adult world.

At times, as in Just in Case (2006), reality and fantasy almost merge, so that we are hard-pressed to say what is ”really” happening. In There is no Dog (2011), things get truly crazy when a hormonal teen is given the job of the great Creator.

Meg Rosoff is the recipient of numerous prizes, including Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, Carnegie Medal and Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages and she became Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2014.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be presented in a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on May 30, 2016.

More information
Helene Andersson, Communications Officer
Phone: +46 (0)76 540 10 17
E-mail: helene.andersson@alma.se

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature. The award, which amounts to SEK 5 million, is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible. The award is designed to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature. The UN convention of rights of the child is the foundation of our work. An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by institutions and organisations all over the world. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.

Behind the scenes of the announcement

This year’s announcement is coming up on Tuesday next week! Do you want to have a look behind the scenes?