Frida Nilsson

Frida Nilsson’s Jagger, Jagger (not translated into English) is about being excluded. We meet Bengt, an eight-year-old boy who can’t go out and play because he is being bullied by the neighbourhood children. They chase him up a tree, put cornflakes in his post box, and throw his ball in the river. And all the while the adults are either oblivious or turn a blind eye.

One day, the kids shut Bengt in the rubbish room, where he comes across the dog Jagger Svensson, who is looking for food. Jagger is sleeping rough and living in containers, and in their exclusion the two find each other. They soon hatch a plan for getting even with Bengt’s tormentors.

Jagger, Jagger is a story that is both humorous and serious, about children’s friendships and exclusion when first starting school. The combination of social critique, agile language, and the refreshing lack of pointers yield a story full of pathos and depth. Lotta Geffenblad’s black-and-white illustrations adroitly depict the individual’s vulnerability.

Jagger, Jagger is acclaimed by critics and readers alike. When author and reviewer Andreas Palmer chose the best children’s and young people’s books for 2013 for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, he put Jagger, Jagger at the top of his list, calling it “the best-written children’s book of the year”. It was also nominated for the August Prize in the same year.

Nilsson is a children’s books author and translator who has also written scripts for radio and television, dubbed animated films, held acting classes for children, and presented the children’s programme Hjärnkontoret on SVT. She made her debut in 2004 with Kråkans otroliga liftarsemester (“Crow’s Amazing Hitch-hiking Holiday”, not translated into English) and has since published a series of popular and acclaimed works. Her four books about the girl Hedvig are inspired by Nilsson’s own childhood. Jagger, Jagger is part of a trilogy in which each book takes a different type of exclusion as its theme. The other two books are Apstjärnan(“The Ape Star”, not translated into English) and Jag, Dante och miljonerna (“Me, Dante, and the Millions”, not translated into English).

Nilsson’s books have been translated into over ten languages, with Apstjärnan in particular gaining international recognition. It was awarded the French literary prize Les Olympiades in 2013 and was nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2012 and the Prix Tam-Tam “J'aime Lire” in 2013. In 2004 Nilsson was awarded the BMF plaque and has been nominated for the August Prize twice, in 2013 for Jagger, Jagger, and in 2006 for Hedvig och Max-Olov (“Hedvig and Max-Olov”, not translated into English). In 2014 she was awarded publisher Raben & Sjogren’s Astrid Lindgren prize.