scripsi

One of my projects this year is to re-read those books that somehow mattered a bit more than other books. Not just fun, or interesting, but bit more. And I will start with the first book I can remember that brought the magic of literature to me. This book was a picture book, Historien om någon (The Story About Someone) by Åke Löfgren and illustrated by Egon Möller-Nielsen, and I was three years old. It’s something of a classic in Sweden, first published in 1951.

The story is very simple. We follow the mysterious “someone” through a house. He upsets grandmother’s knitting basket and makes away with a ball of yarn, and the reader follows the trail of yarn from room to room. “Someone is obviously rather mischievous, breaking a vase, drink all the milk and fish the goldfish out of a bowl. luckily the reader comes along and is urged to quickly put it back in the water again. The trail ends in the attic, finally revealing that “someone” is a kitten named Nisse.

It was such a wonderful, thrilling feeling to read this book. I loved the pictures, simple but still with enough details to catch the eyes. even though I knew the story by heart i still wasn’t quite sure everything would look the same when i turned the page. The possibility of something else to happen seemed very close. And perhaps, if I could find the right trick, I would be able to step inside the book myself, exploring those parts of the book house that isn’t shown. Especially a dark vault that is glimpses under the staircase- I was very curious of what could be found there.