By Frida Nilsson
Hedvig lives just outside of nowhere, right next to no one at all. Her house is red and has its own name. There are jabbering ducks in the duckhouse, and hens that wander and poop in her mother’s flowerbeds. Hedvig has a dog called Tacka and two stripey outdoor cats, Havana and Stick.
Hedvig has been waiting forever for school to start. She’s looking forward to it so much, she might burst. Luckily her school is full of new adventures! The every-day adventurous life of a typical and inventive child is depicted with a great sense of humour and sympathy.
Frida Nilsson (born 1979) is considered one of the most talented children’s book authors in Sweden today. Her authorship is characterized by tremendous humor and great sincerity. She writes about the big questions in life – friendship, death and love – and has been compared to fellow writers such as Roald Dahl and Barbro Lindgren. Frida is internationally successful, and her work has been published in more than 20 languages.
Her books have been awarded Swedish and international prizes. She received the James Krüss Award for International Children’s Literature in 2019 and the LUCHS, annually awaded by Die Zeit, for her book “The Thin Sword”. She has been nominated for ALMA, the Deutscher Jugend Literaturpreis in Germany, and the August Prize (three times). In 2017, the International Children’s Literature Hay Festival in Aarhus selected her as one of the 39 best European children’s book authors aged 40 and under. In 2021, Frida Nilsson was awarded the newly established Swedish Academy’s prize for children’s and young adult literature.