sagovärld and other magical places OR what we're reading in sweden

i'd been collecting these gorgeous, whimsical postcards of faeries and flowers and strawberry queens by elsa beskow "the Beatrix Potter of Scandanavia" but it wasn't until we went to junibacken--the children's museum in stockholm dedicated to astrid lindgren (pippi longstocking creator)--that i really fell in love with beskow's sagovärld or faerie world (here's a cool link showing the making of this exhibit). owen called it "food world" and after being terrorized by the story book "train" (a really really slow moving float through creepy oversized dioramas of melancholic scandanavian fairy tales) he was thrilled to find beskow's blueberry land where he could ride on a mouse, sail in a walnut boat and ski towards a giant orange.

after the adventures we spent way too much time (and most of our souvie budget) in the amazing giftshop/bookstore. here were our 4 favorite picks (the rest of our finds will be appearing in stockings and gift baskets!):

peter in blueberry land

we're looking forward to collecting the rest of beskow's stories-- the sun egg and ollie's ski trip were other favorites in sagovärld

Selma Lagerlöf, the swedish writer who was the first woman to win the nobel prize for literature wrote

The Wonderful Adventure of Nils

as a geography reader for Sweden from a commission by the national teacher's association. the 20 kroner note has Lagerlöf on the front and Nils riding the goose on the back. this will be a fun journey to read as a bedtime series!

and of course we picked up tove jannson the finish writer of the swedish moomin world--owen loves the peekaboos and cutouts of moomintroll trying to get home to mama with his jug of milk in

the book about moomin, mymble and little my

we'll be in helsinki, finland this weekend and although we probably won't make it to mummimaalima in naantali a few hours north of helsinki (check out this informative link about the mummin family and moomin world) we may have to find the moomin shop!

finally--the last book isn't swedish per se, but we couldn't resist
Richard Scarry vi lär oss ABC and have been enjoying learning swedish words (especially getting those extra 3 letters!) with lowly worm and the cat family