Winner of the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2013
The Finnish book “Karikko” (WSOY 2012) by Seita Vuorela and Jani Ikonen (ill.) is the first work to be awarded the newly established Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize.
The back cover text in Finland for Seita Vuorela's novel “Karikko” classifies it as a work for both young people and adults.
Seita Vuorela (formerly Parkkola, born 1971) lives in Helsinki, where she works as an author and photographer. She also teaches creative writing. Her youth novels have been translated into many languages, including Swedish, English, French, Italian and German.
Illustrator Jani Ikonen's cover image is described as captivating. The novel is also illustrated with Ikonen's black and white, photo-like drawings, which can be interpreted as depicted spiritual landscapes.
The Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize is worth DKK 350,000.
The Adjudication Committee's
In a barrier-breaking story built up like a mosaic, the author renders a brotherly saga that affects and touches the reader to the last line. In a distinctive style, folklore, mythology and the saga traditions are woven together into this deeply symbolic novel about grief, where the young person's searching takes place at the interface between child and adult, land and water, dream and reality, life and death. The illustrator's black and white images combine poetic graphics with photographic technology and broaden the suggestive overall impression.