Barnboken

Introduction: Dog

Maria Andersson — 2026-03-20

Theme: Dog

Introduction: Dog

Introduction to Volume 48

Maria Andersson — 2026-03-20

Introduction to Volume 48

Rena rutinarbetet!

Cecilie Takle — 2026-03-18

Mere Routine! Literature as a Source of Ingenuity and Education in Astrid Lindgren’s Bill Bergson Trilogy

This article investigates the function of literary fiction and reading in Astrid Lindgren’s Kalle Blomkvist trilogy (1946–1953). In the Kalle Blomkvist books – internationally known as the Bill Bergson trilogy – the child characters are very well-read, and the literature they read is significant to the plot of the stories. I therefore examine how the literature they read affects the characters’ way of acting and thinking through a discussion about reading, literary education, and embodiment. The characters embody the knowledge they acquire from reading fiction and apply this knowledge in new situations, both cognitively, verbally, and physically. In this way, the characters model for the actual readers how lessons and facts learned from reading fiction can be applicable in situations outside of literature.

”Just för barn skrifver jag”

Björn Sundmark — 2026-03-18

^{Theme: The Children’s Library Saga and the Swedish Teachers’ Magazine’s Publishing House. Logo: The Swedish Institute for Children's Books}

“But I do write just for children”: Hugo Gyllander’s Letters About His Translations of the Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm and Asbjørnsen & Moe

Through his great productivity and deep involvement with the Barnbiblioteket Saga series, published by Svensk läraretidnings förlag, Hugo Gyllander (1868–1955) was a front figure in Swedish children’s literature during the first half of the 20^th century. He translated many of the great international classics, but today he is perhaps best known for his translations of the fairy tales of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Charles Perrault, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, and others. In this context it is interesting to examine Gyllander’s views of his own practice in his correspondence with his two editors, Amanda Hammarlund and Signe Wranér. The article focuses first on letters to Hammarlund regarding his first volume of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. My second example is from his correspondence with Wranér and concerns his translations of Asbjørnsen and Moe’s fairy tales. The aim is to show in what ways his expressed translation ideals are affected by his view of the status of the source material and by the nature of his relationship to the two editors. The analysis reveals that while Gyllander expresses an ambition to stay as close to the original as possible in the case of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, he shows a greater readiness to adapt the fairy tales of Asbjørnsen and Moe.

Mellan ideal och praktik

Ulf Boëthius — 2026-03-18

^{Theme: The Children’s Library Saga and the Swedish Teachers’ Magazine’s Publishing House. Logo: The Swedish Institute for Children's Books}

Between Ideals and Practice: Barnbiblioteket Saga and the “Indian Books” – the Example of Den siste mohikanen

The book series Barnbiblioteket Saga, published by Svensk läraretidnings förlag, was perhaps the most important reading-promotion project of twentieth-century Sweden. This article examines the publication of so-called indianböcker, which in direct translation means “Indian books,” a term used in Sweden during the first half of the twentieth century for books mainly set in North America and depicting the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. While the publisher released several such books, it also criticized the genre and claimed to publish only “good” ones. Focusing on Den siste mohikanen (1911), Barnbiblioteket Saga’s adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (1826), the article explores how the ideal of “good” indianböcker was defined and how this ideal related to translation and publishing practices. The study reveals a tension between commercial and ideological values: although the novel was presented as an alternative to indianböcker of the time considered harmful to young readers, it nevertheless contains many of the very elements that the publisher associated with that category, such as “the bloody, wild adventures,” rendering the publication ideologically contradictory.