A Quirky Tale of Songs, Riddles, a Drawn Friend, and a Healthy Dose of Absurdity

I stumbled upon this book a few years ago through positive reviews and bought it for my 8-year-old daughter. She read it herself, put it on the shelf, and now we're going through all the circles of children's literature with my 6-year-old mini Elodie, and this book has made it to the shelf.

Sinker Hopp. The Magic Pencil. Publishing House of Speech, 2015.This was our first encounter with The Magic Pencil. At first, I wasn't a fan of this fairy tale. The characters just wander off, something happens, a new chapter starts, and new unrelated adventures begin. Characters appear and disappear. What's going on, what's the point, why...

The meaning went missing yesterday, in blue boots and socks...However, the kid listened, and when we were filling out the reader's diary, she even remembered a few episodes a week later and told me about them with details. She liked the book, but I think to appreciate the humor of the book and its antics, the reader should be a bit older, around the age of elementary school.The Magic Pencil. Content.The book consists of two stories, The Magic Pencil, where a boy named Yun gets the chance to bring drawings to life, and Yun and Sofus, where the characters go on a journey by train, arrive in a sleepy kingdom, and start making money there by waving a magic wand. The first part is more interactive, with many addresses to the reader, and the illustrations support the text and invite the reader to play along, for example, find all the hidden animals.

Can you read the inscription on the cave?Can you find 8 animals here?Help the troll paint the floor in the house? Easy!The second part seemed more satirical to me, especially the moments with the magic objects that Yun and Sofus had, or the publication of troll Kumele!

This tablecloth reminded me of a scene from the movie Charms. That's what these tablecloths are like - feisty!Kumle's troll papers. Our book was published by Retch in the "Image of Speech" series in 2015, and now it's published by Labyrinth, also in a gift version, but with different illustrations.On the plus side: the paper, the layout, the colored illustrations, some of which reflect the text and riddles. There are also drawings made by the characters themselves, which are part of the story. Personally, I wasn't a fan of how Evgeny Antonenkov drew the main characters, especially Søfus. Søfus is essentially a drawn boy. But here's this fussy old man, "a man in his prime", but on thin legs.

Just like Karlsson, Søfus can be quoted, he's hilarious in his childish selfishness. Every time he says, "I'm not afraid of anything except this thing", "I've never had..." I giggled, it's just like one of my friend's girls... Søfus is a coward and a cheat, but by the end of the book, he becomes better.

Donnie Darko. Beginning.Kumle, Yun, Søfus, and Bibbi.Yun, on the other hand, is very level-headed and polite, they complement Søfus perfectly. It's very clear in their wish selection, which they cast to the troll Kumle. The troll, by the way, is my favorite character in this book. He's drawn wonderfully! And he was trolling before it became trendy in your internets.

The troll named Kumle.- We have to say "problem", not "porblem"! - said Yun. - Don't we have freedom in our country? Don't we have the right to pronounce words as we please?! - Kumle was indignant. That's also a porblem, and a big one!

What strikes me about the many great reviews is that people who read this fairy tale as kids might have been impressed by it back then, when it was published in a collection of Scandinavian authors along with Moomin trolls, Ludwig the Fourteenth, and others. As a kid, it's easy to be wowed by a lot of things, but if an adult doesn't like absurd books, Yoon and Søren's adventures might leave them scratching their heads. It's not Alice in Wonderland, but halfway to it (no wonder Synne K. Høpp translated Alice into Norwegian).

- Well, it's just that some folks deny my existence. - Kuml liked to express himself in a grandiose way sometimes. - I mean, trolls don't exist, it's all nonsense, rubbish, superstition. And it's wrong to instill kids with the idea that we exist.

- Maybe they're right? - said Søren. - Maybe you're just imagining that you exist in the world! And in reality, you're just a little girl from a psychology textbook who sleeps and dreams that she's a troll named Kuml.

- But then you wouldn't have seen me! - Kuml retorted. - Because if I don't exist, then you don't exist either!

- The crocodile said he's now chosen the name Homer, after the famous poet Rovvig. Although he was actually named Arneulf, the crocodile liked the name Homer better.

An example of unusual local poetry.I also thought the Norwegian book was similar to the Czech Anička-Nevěrná by V. Nezval, but it's still not as strange as the Norwegians are.

A new way of composing poetry.

Just Christoffer Kambolumb, keep reading.

You can even come up with your own phrases like these.The book has a lot of poems and little songs, and people can react to that in different ways: some like the change of pace in the storytelling, while others get tired of reading long poems. I was pleasantly surprised to find poems about Sara-Bara-Bu, cow Mu, and the marabou (I used to love the Secret Quartet's record with this song).

Sara-Bara-Bu, she's got a cow Mu!

A song about Søren. Not the longest poems in this book.

There's also word games, unusual math, turning fairy tale plots on their head, and even the author of this book isn't actually Synne K. Høpp... Very unusual stories, which is why opinions about them range from enthusiasm to 'what was the author smoking?'

A pretty cool way to divide things. I was a bit disappointed that there's no simpler edition available, especially since the excerpt from 'Malka' shows up in literature textbooks and the book is even on the list of extracurricular reading for elementary school. It would be great to have a school version of the book, not as plain as the 'School Library', but something like 'The Colorful Ribbon' by Mahaon. Not being disappointed in a book for 250 rubles is less painful than being disappointed in one for 600.

So, what's the verdict? I wouldn't say this book is a must-have for home libraries, but if you enjoy 'Zoki and Bada', Yuliana Mori's poetry, Antonenkov's illustrations, Scandinavian fairy tales, and just unusual adventures of boys - you might want to give it a try. My rating is 3.5 stars.