Kristin Roskifte has won the 2019 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize

The prize was awarded by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven at the awards ceremony that was broadcast live from the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Roskifte has won the prize for a work that is different and unique for its genre.

This year’s winning book has a somewhat enigmatic title.  The title in Norwegian has a double meaning – “everyone counts/tells” – but it’s more than a Where’s Wally? book. It says that everyone should be counted and mean something; that everyone is unique and valuable. The number of people in the colourful pictures grows from a single boy looking at the stars, to thousands of people watching a rare comet. Although there are many stylised people in the pictures, they all have individual features that allow us to recognise them. In a variety of contexts and environments, they gradually emerge with the own distinctive lives. The text is poetic and funny. It arouses curiosity and gives us clues for understanding what’s going on in the pictures. With Alle sammen teller (available in English with the title Everyone counts, published by Magikon, 2018) Kristin Roskifte allows both the text and images to form part of a context that is different and unique within the tradition of a ‘Where’s Wally?’ style book. It is a work that can be read time and again, and each time we discover something new.

The awards ceremony for the 2019 Nordic Council Prizes was broadcast live from the Stockholm Concert Hall. The programme can be watched via the following links and at the following times until spring 2020.

The Nordic Council awards five prizes each year – for literature, film, music, the environment, and children’s and young people’s literature. Each prize of DKK 350,000 is awarded at a gala event during the annual Session of the Nordic Council.