PISA-results have revealed declining reading skills among Finnish youth. In the editorial, the new chair of the board of the Finnish Institute for Children’s Literature, Annu Viheriälehto, urges us to stop lamenting the state of affairs and instead calmly focus on what needs to be done. We know that reading fiction strengthens students’ concentration and empathetic skills. The national literacy strategy also points out the connection between reading fiction and good learning results. Viheriälehto, who works as a middle school teacher of Finnish and literature, hopes that more teachers of other subjects would incorporate the reading of fiction in their classes and that more lesson hours overall were dedicated to reading fiction.
Veronica Leo has donated 123 original illustrations from her picturebooks published 1984–2005 to the institute’s picture archive. Sisko Ylimartimo presents Leo’s versatile career, which includes creating costumes and scenery for the stage. Leo has illustrated many of Zacharias Topelius’ fairy tales, as well as other folktales.
For over 40 years, Finnish visually impaired children have been able to borrow tactile books. Students from Fredrika Wetterhoff’s handicraft school made and donated the very first unique, hand-made tactile books in 1984. Today, Celia – the national library for accessible literature and publishing in Finland – is in charge of the book collection and lending services. In her article, Celia’s planner Marjo Kauttonen confirms that the collection of tactile books keeps growing and that there is a need for more books especially targeted to young readers.
All over the world, people have told folktales about foolish people. Writer Pamela Mandart has traced the history of such mocking folktales in Finnish and Danish folk tradition. The well-known tales about the foolish Finns called ”hölmöläiset” became known to a larger audience through Zacharias Topelius’ widely read Boken om Vårt Land [’A Book about our Country’] from 1875 onwards. The popular tales have been retold in school readers and collected in many anthologies. According to Mandart, the narrative style and humour of these stories still appeal to modern children. She has compiled two new collections of older familiar tales and new ones, in which the fools go Nordic walking or compete in wife carrying.
Finnish folk tradition also appeals to pre-schoolers and pupils at elementary school in the municipality of Pirkkala. Preschool-teachers Leena Jalonen and Päivi Mäkelä have arranged memorable book sessions for children in the commune’s main library. The sessions begin with an introduction to fairies and earth spirits through a children’s book that combines fairy tales and facts. The next step is to go find fairy tale creatures’ in nature. The teachers have interlaced the pleasant activity with pedagogical sub goals.
Translated: Maria Lassén-Seger.
