Hurray for 40 Years with Alfie! Welcome to a MAGICAL Party

Transcription

1 Hurray for 40 Years with Alfie! Welcome to a MAGICAL Party

2 He is not very big and he s not very strong And he knows that he doesn t like fi ghting And he s never the best And not famous at all And rich well, he d rather be free He s just ORDINARY like me. from Alfie s song Hurray for Alfie Atkins! In 2012 Alfie Atkins celebrates his fortieth anniversary. Alfi e is an ordinary guy who lives with his dad in a modern suburb anywhere in the world. He is not very big. And he s not very strong. And he knows that he doesn t like fi ghting! He is happy and mischievous but can also be angry, jealous, afraid of ghosts All children can see themselves in Alfi e. And actually, he is not particularly ordinary either. Is anybody? In Alfi e s world we also fi nd his friends Milla, Viktor, Malcolm and Hamdi, and of course, Grandma, the cousins and Dad. Alfi e s world contains the struggle of everyday living, as well as grand philosophies and eternal questions. And in the midst of all the ordinary there is something MAGICAL. Perhaps this is why everybody loves him. These days Alfi e Atkins reaches as far across generational boundaries as he does boundaries between nations. In late autumn of 1972 the very fi rst book about Alfi e Atkins came out; Good Night, Alfi e Atkins. This is the book about Alfi e that has been translated into the largest number of languages. Since 2009 the book is an offi cial classic represented in Norstedts Tusen svenska klassiker and also in 1001 Children s Books You Must Read Before You Die (Universe Publishing, New York). Today Alfi e Atkins is a Swedish picture book classic, and year after year it is at the top of the list of the most circulated books in our libraries. In Sweden alone close to fi ve million Alfi e books have been printed and the books have been translated into approximately thirty languages. For four decades Alfi e Atkins has been the main character of twenty-fi ve stories and has become a part of our cultural heritage. Alfi e Atkins has also made a name for himself in research. The dissertation Synligt/osynligt: receptionen av det visuella i bilderböckerna om Alfons Åberg, was presented by Annika Gunnarsson in 2012 at the Department of Art History at the University of Stockholm. In addition to his books, Alfi e Atkins has also through the years appeared in movies, on television, in a number of different theaters, in musicals and exhibits in Sweden, and also in other places around the world. Since the very fi rst moment, Good Night, Alfi e Atkins has never left the Swedish book market. It has been in print continuously for forty years. All the picture books about Alfi e Atkins share this unique fortune: None of them have ever been out of print.

3 Alfie Atkins in the World Albert Åberg Alfons Åberg Alphonse Einar Áskell W Mikko Mallikas illi Wiberg Alfonso Alfons Alfons Guuled Dawie The books about Alfie Atkins have been translated into approximately thirty languages. In Norway, Denmark, Finland and Germany, and on Iceland, the books about Alfie Atkins have been established as classics. Alfie Atkins Alho Åberg

4 The Books about Alfie Atkins Good Night, Alfi e Atkins Very Tricky, Alfi e Atkins! Hurry up, Alfi e Atkins! Alfi e Atkins and His Secret Friend Who ll Save Alfi e Atkins? You re a Sly One, Alfi e Atkins! Alfi e and the Monster Are You a Coward, Alfi e Atkins? What s Alfi e up to Now? Who s Scaring Alfi e Atkins? Happy Alfi e Atkins You Have a Girlfriend, Alfi e Atkins?

5 A Party, Alfi e Atkins! Hocus-Pocus, Alfi e Atkins! Just Tie It, Alfi e Atkins What Did Mr. Atkins Say? There Goes Alfi e the Thief! More Monsters, Alfi e! Three Cheers for Alfi e s Daddy! Not Likely! Said Alfi e Atkins Fly With Me, Said Alfi e Atkins Invisible with Alfi e How far Does Alfi e Reach? Alfi e and the Soldier Daddy Alfi e Atkins with the Magic Sack 2012 The Last to Laugh! Said Alfi e s Dad Released September 2012

6 Life! An INCREDIBLE Mystery Reality is fairytale enough! No princesses, adventures or spacemen! No flashy pictures and, above all, no pretty lies! I want to tell true stories about real people, just the way they behave in everyday life, Gunilla Bergström says and continues: Mini-dramas on a psychological level. It s about mischief, about missing a friend, about being afraid of ghosts, about getting into fights, the end of Christmas The kind of thing every child can recognize. But preferably there should also be room for something imagined, unexpected! Gunilla Bergström was born in 1942 and started out as a journalist. She made her debut with Rabén & Sjögren in 1971 with Mia s Dad Moves Out. Since then she has been tirelessly active as a picture book artist and author. She is considered one of Sweden s foremost picture book creators of all times. Gunilla Bergström has been pioneering in many ways, thematically as well as artistically. She was the first to introduce the collage as a story telling device in picture books and the first to write about divorce for children. Very early on in the world of children s books she used a dad instead of a mom as the primary parent in her stories Alfie s dad in the series about Alfie Atkins and she received enormous attention as the first children s writer to write openly and candidly about handicaps in her story about Bill and the secret child Bolla. A particular curiosity and a fascination for human beings shines through in both her texts and her illustrations. She prefers to write about the everyday lives of children, about human behavior and psychological situations. But somewhere between ordinary everyday life and other struggles is a secret magical world imagination: Because in the midst of the ordinary, there is awe, fear, a sudden burst of laughter and The Eternal Questions. We adults have often forgotten about this as we struggle to come up with the rent, food, meet responsibilities; that life is an incredible mystery! Full of possibilities. The things we come up with! There is so much we can do that we never believed! And while wars are being fought, computers are being invented and people are having babies seasons turn their eternal cycles, the same rhythm for thousands of years It is incomprehensible! Reality is fairytale enough. Every day is new. Children know this best of all. It is we, the adults, who have forgotten. I want to tell stories so that children and adults are reminded and can laugh and be awed together. Children who get to charge up on reality and the magic of reality become better equipped. Then different decisions can be made, better fights Photo: Jörn H Moen fought and a warmer atmosphere can be created when these kids one day come into power. Or only become parents, Gunilla Bergström tells us. That is the whole point of my writing; to show real people as we are, for better or for worse and hopefully still with our courage intact. I am not interested in staying current or being politically correct. Yuck, how humiliating. Being correct! I d rather be oppositional, independent and mischievous than up to date, adjustable. Gunilla Bergström has received numerous prizes and awards, among them the Elsa Beskow Plaque, the Astrid Lindgren Prize, the Honorary Prize of Stockholm City, the Swedish Academy s Schullströmska Award for children and young adult literature, as well as the Emil Prize in memory of Astrid Lindgren. She has also received a Grammis Award for the best children s album of the year. In the fall of 2012 the popular character Alfie Atkins returns in The Last to Laugh! Said Alfie s Dad.

7 Welcome to a Magical Party Rabén & Sjögren celebrates Alfie Atkins 40 th anniversary with a magical party! A new edition of Hocus- Pocus, Alfi e Atkins! and a nice cardboard house with four books one from each decade is a part of the celebration. The mini-books that come with the house are: Very Tricky, Alfi e Atkins! (1973), Just Tie It, Alfi e Atkins (1988), Fly With Me, Said Alfi e Atkins (1997) and How far Does Alfi e Reach? (2002). With this book comes an Alfi e puzzle, stickers, stamps and three CDs with readings of Alfi e Atkins stories. In the summer of 2012 an anniversary book, Alfi e s Anniversary Book, will be published, written by, among others, Lena Kåreland, Lotta Olsson and art expert Jan von Bonsdorff. Editor is Stina Jofs.

8 Ysan Grafi sk form Find more about Alfie on Illustrations Gunilla Bergström