By Eva Lindström
This is about Frank. And about Titti, Palle and Milan. When everyone leaves Frank is alone. As usual. So Frank goes home, takes out a pot and makes marmalade, but not any kind of marmalade. It is made out of his tears. (But the others don’t know this) The others are curious about what his up to. When Frank is finished he invites the others for tea and toast. With marmalade. They accept. On the last page you see what remains after the tea party. Did they all become friends – or not? It’s left to the reader to ponder… A melancholic and thrilling and unusual book about belonging to a group or not with an open ending.
Eva Lindström, (born 1952), is one of Sweden’s best-known and most loved children’s book artists. She has an absolutely unique style, which is quirky, funny, original and very succinct. Her career spans over three decades. She has been nominated for the August Award twelve times and was nominated for IBBY’s HC Andersen award in 2014, 2016 and 2018. She received “Heffaklumpen” in 2002 for Någon flyttar in, the Elsa Beskow Plaque and “The Snowball” for Apan och jag published in 2011. With charming and individual stories, Lindström confirms her position as a unique creator of picture books again and again.
Praise:
“No one can create images like Eva Lindström: sparely populated with increasingly larger empty spaces, yet so loaded with meaning that you have to read and reread, over and over again.”-Dagens Nyheter
“What shall we do about Eva Lindström? Thank her, watch and love what she does, give her every August Prize in the world, for her artistic consistency and bold risk taking.”-Dagens Nyheter
”Eva Lindström manages yet again with simple and distinct means to create a minor, but at the same time miraculous, re-creation of both the picture book genre and her own expression.”-Aftonbladet
”Eva Lindström’s books are always sparse, pastel coloured and with a quirky humour, but I wonder if I have ever seen her do as scaled down as this.”-Dagens Nyheter
“There’s a liberating unpredictable-ness about Eva Lindström’s books, you wonder curiously: Where will she take us this time? It’s brilliant!”-Dagens Nyheter.