Kathrine Rosing og Nina Spore Kreutzmann

Nasaq teqqialik piginnaanilik (The Magic Cap) by Kathrine Rosing is an exciting story about an 11 year-old boy from Greenland called Manu. His grandmother finds a strange cap on the beach which turns out to be able to create a connection to Mio, a Chinese boy of the same age. When Manu wears the cap he has lively dreams about Mio, and Mio dreams about Manu in the same way. The cap has once belonged to Mio, who unluckily or luckily, lost it on an outing. The boys talk about their dreams to their families and friends, who initially consider them to be normal dreams. But as time goes by, the boys' families and friends become more and more obsessed by the dreams, and in the end they take the initiative for the boys to meet in the real world.

The text is simple and well-written and it appeals to children from 9 years-old and older. The book is illustrated by Nina Spore Kreutzmann who uses drawn illustrations on photo background. The illustrations are realistic but also leave room for the imagination and thus brilliantly complement the story. The themes in the narrative are consciousness of tradition combined with an openness in relation to modernity and globalisation, imagination, doubt, dreams, friendship, bullying, travel and cultural encounters.

Nasaq teqqialik piginnaanilik (The magic cap) invites children into a magical but nevertheless realistic world where inner primal instincts go with a convincing result. An adult reading the story aloud will, almost certainly, be reminded about how loyal children actually are.