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Like comics without the traditional strips, I found myself thinking on several occasions as I read through the selection of new children's picture books published during autumn 2006. Individual images come together to form a cartoon-like, multilayered, fast-paced visual narrative which runs hand in hand with the text - and in some cases appears to be one of the narrative's central catalysts. Many illustrators and / or writers of children's picture books have a background as cartoon artists. The target audience of these books, children and young people today, is a highly media-literate readership indeed. Rapid technological advances constantly underline - almost to an extreme - the role of the image in narrative fiction as in society in general, and this is undeniably the case in children's culture too. This emphasis on the visual is a natural part of children's picture books because, at its best, the illustration itself can play a wholly independent role.
 Here are a few examples. Tatu and Patu Hard at Work (Tatu ja Patu työn touhussa, Otava 2006), the latest instalment in the popular Tatu and Patu series by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen, offers up, through a combination of infor-mative text and detailed, humorous illustrations, a detailed exploration of all manner of different professions seen through a child's eyes. A fire engine becomes a paradise for anyone interested in cars, while a hairdresser's chair provides the setting for a highly imaginative selection of different "heads", prototypes and character analyses. Throughout the book, the specific demands of a number of professions are explored in cartoon form.
The works of Mauri Kunnas, whose books set in Koiramäki are among the most popular, the most sold and the most translated Finnish picture books, are also examples of this strong cartoon-like continuum. Besides being a classic adventure filled with images of his familiar characters, Kunnas' new book, The Vikings are Coming! (Viikingit tulevat, Otava 2006), is a historical, factual narrative, and is a good example of the cartoon-like storytelling I mentioned earlier. Images are positioned against asymmetrical background colours, like a blank comic strip, though each double-page does not necessarily follow in sequence from one square to the next. Both the narrative and the action are led onwards through the images placed here and there across the page.
 Published in 2007, Kitten's ABC (Kisun ABC, Otava) by the cartoon artist Katja Tukiainen continues in a similar vein. While being, on the one hand, a traditional alphabet book, the story is cleverly told through a selection of cartoon-like, asymmetrical images.
Entire comic books for children - and for the young at heart - are beginning to appear in great numbers. Juba Tuomola is best known for Viivi and Wagner, a cartoon strip which has already sold over half a million albums. Juba's humorous, narrative style, often providing the reader with a healthy dose of social commentary, can also be seen in his first picture book aimed specifically at children, Minerva. Flowers for Dr Crackpot (Minerva. Kukkia tohtori Kääkälle, Otava 2006). Like Juba's work, Julia Vuori's cartoon album The Pig and the Whimsical Mushroom (Sika ja oikukas sieni, Otava 2006), which deals with "laziness as a lifestyle choice, and a bit of tender loving care", both have the ability to touch children and adults in equal measure.
"Staring at our own personal beans gave
us a renewed sense of emptiness."
Many such cartoon-like picture books are written by men, and subjects traditionally considered 'boyish', such as detailed descriptions of gadgetry and adventures, are still commonplace. Increasingly, however, we can discern a new generation of illustrators for whom strong imagery in communication and the use of information technology go without saying.
The Politics of Identity
in the Contemporary World
Another fascinating element in new children's picture books is the adaptation of currently very popular fantasy literature and the presentation of modern cultural phenomena such as otherness, multiculturalism and even globalisation in a form suitable for young readers – the politics of identity in the contemporary world.
 In Minerva, a little girl flies off in a cardboard box on a fantastical journey to save the world, no less, from the evil Dr Crackpot's plans to destroy the planet. Tomi Kontio's The Cow with a Hatch in its Side (Lehmä, jonka kyljessä oli luukku, Teos 2006) takes readers off on an adventure inside a cow's stomach.
 Rather less fantastical, though no less unfamiliar places are to be found too, as in Xing and the Super Friends (Xing ja superkaverit, Tammi 2006), written by Leena Virtanen and illustrated by Salla Savolainen. This book follows the everyday life of a Chinese girl adopted in Finland and addresses the question of multiculturalism in a wider context. Here too the pace of the book is often heightened with the use of cartoon-style boxes. Sari Airola's picture book Miu Tiu (Mia Tiu ja sata sanaa, WSOY 2006) tells the story of a girl in China who refuses to speak any language.
 Timo Parvela and Virpi Talvitie's book Seesaw (Keinulauta, WSOY 2006), which was awarded the Finlandia Junior prize, explores the characters' search for identity and the issues of otherness, loneliness and how to connect with others.
 The same is true of Snowlight (Revontulilumi, Tammi 2006), the final part of an award-winning trilogy by Riitta Jalonen and Kristiina Louhi, in which a little girl who has lost her father recalls the time they spent together. The text is rich and is given a deeper dimension by the illustrator's selection of soft colours, her use of lines and perspective - that of a small person whose life, despite everything, must go on.
The theme of death and coming to terms with death can be strongly felt in Sad Boots (Surusaappaat, Lasten Keskus 2006), by writer Päivi Franzon and illustrator Sari Airola. A little boy loses his grandmother, something that both the text and in particular the images illustrate in a very powerful, expressive and visceral manner.
Since the early 1980s, literature for children and young people has presented readers with many themes, both the heart-warming and the saddening. The sheer scope of the subject matter and the unanswered questions these texts encompass aptly demonstrate that young Finnish readers are by no means underestimated: people read regularly to young children from an early age; these children then grow into avid, omnivorous readers who, according to the results of the recent Pisa study, are among the best readers in the world.
Hannele Jyrkkä
FILI - Finnish Literature Exchange
12.4.2007
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