Sven Nordqvist creates his works entirely himself, both illustrations and text. This is not a unique phenomenon in children's literature. Tove Jansson, Susanne Rotraut Berner, Antoine de Saint Exupery painted illustrations with which the heroes of their fairy tales are exclusively associated. But it is Nordkvist’s pictures that amaze with the accuracy of images and emotions, dynamics, wit, and abundance of interesting details.
Nordkvist stunningly conveys the facial expressions of the characters, and the expression on Petson’s face, pondering over the drawing of his next invention, is incomparable. Or, for example, Petson, reading at breakfast, cranes his neck, squints his eyes and squints his face towards the book so that there is no doubt that he is very interested in reading. And then Petson, in search of a rooster, jumps out into the yard and anxiously looks around, while we see his face from several angles at once - brilliant! “Look, mom, here I am on the right, here I am on the left!” - my child laughs and quickly turns his head, trying to depict what he saw in the picture. Findus loves to jump on the bed “knock-knock, knuckle-knuckle, knuckle-knuckle!”; and his pirouettes, and speed, and the pleasure of jumping, and even this “bang-bang”, everything, everything takes place not only in the text, but also in the pictures.
In the stories about Findus and Petson, tiny characters appear - mukles, they live side by side with the main characters with their own lives, about which we know little from the text, but we look at the pictures with them, giggling with delight: here is an angry granny- the cleaning lady shakes her fist at Findus, who has followed him; here are the deer myukls with luxurious branchy antlers, and here the myukls are dressed up as Christmas gnomes and are carrying bags of gifts for their little ones.
It’s interesting to study the life of the old man and the cat, all their numerous drawers with a million little things, cow pastorals on the walls, potato lanterns in the yard and firewood carrots. Petson will probably remind many of the old people he knows with his thriftiness: in his house, like many artisan grandfathers, there is a place for all kinds of pieces of iron, wheels, ropes, devices that, perhaps, no one has used for twenty years, but don’t throw them away, suddenly they will come in handy.
In the books about Findus there are several illustrations that differ in color from the bright sun-drenched pictures - these are night landscapes. Here Nordqvist works mainly in one color, but the monochrome looks so attractive that you want to be inside these scenes. Climb with your kitten into a tree house, decorated with a crystal chandelier, and admire a quiet evening in the countryside: silence, coolness, carved lace of branches and leaves, against the backdrop of the fading sky. Admire and protect the peace of this cozy world from uninvited guests.
In general, in my opinion, it’s time for the Swedes to build a theme park named after Petson and Findus, because their world is so real that it should finally receive physical embodiment. Something like the village of Santa Claus or Moomin, where everyone can assemble some useful household item according to Petson’s drawings, cook and taste Findus’ favorite pancakes, and in the evening take part in a fox hunt with fireworks and a ghost.
Books - here
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