The winner of the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2014

Last year’s winner, Seita Vuorela, presented the DKK 350,000 prize in Stockholm City Hall and read from the adjudication committee’s motivation:

Motivation

“Brown is a warm and powerful story of friendship and courage, full of creativity and everyday magic. It’s a fun story about what it means to be an enterprising little boy when your tormentors won't give up. But it’s also a book about loss and encountering death, depicted in an exquisite and unsentimental manner. The dialogue is believable and funny, and while the sentences are simple, they are often more meaningful than they first appear. The fantastical elements are woven into the story in a stylish and natural way.

The illustrations emphasise the mood and quirky humour of the text, and make sparse but effective use of colour.

In the children’s book market, Brown fills a gap between books for small children and books for teenagers. It is a story with classic elements, but also one that breathes new life into the Norwegian and Nordic tradition of storytelling for children.”