When Findus was little and disappeared by Sven Nordqvist

A young friend of mine is taking a break from his law studies in Australia so he can experience university life in Sweden.  Luckily his classes are in English which means he has been able to enroll in a children's literature course.

We were chatting about Taronga, which he planned to discuss in a tutorial group and I asked about Swedish authors. One of the big names he mentioned was Sven Nordqvist.  In our school library we have When Findus was little and disappeared so I bought it home to read.  Gecko Press do an amazing job sourcing European books and having them translated into English.

Pettson lives all alone in a little house in the country but he occasionally feels quite lonely until one day a kind neighbour delivers a tiny kitten in a box with the label Findus Green Pea.

"Hello Findus Green Pea,' said Pettson and he felt as you do when you open the blinds on a summer morning and warm sunshine floods in. 'My name is Pettson and this is my kitchen.  You can live here, if you want, would you like coffee?"

Pettson and Findus bond quickly. Findus grows bigger, finds his voice and speaks to Pettson.  He asks for some trousers just like the ones he has seen in the newspaper.  Life is good for this loving pair until one morning Findus disappears.  I won't spoil the story by telling why or how but when Pettson could not find little Findus I felt quite distraught.  Not to worry, though, there will be a happy ending.  We have two books about Findus in our school library. In a lovely coincidence I was chatting with a young boy who loves cats on Friday.  I can't wait to show him these books.

You can see the illustrations here.  There are eight books about Findus.  I hope some of the others have English translations so we can add them to our library soon.