Rusty has moved with his family from a town to live in the country. The idea was they could be near Grandpa but sadly as the story opens Grandpa has died. Rusty is trying to make sense of his feelings. His dad tries to reach out to him asking "Everything all right?" but Rusty cannot express his feelings. His Grandpa has left him an old pocket watch but it seems to be broken.
Rusty tries to talk to his new friend Jack but Jack is one of those kids who is always "showing off" for example Jack tells Rusty his Uncle has died and his body is in a glacier and "when the ice melts, he'll come back to life." Rusty has more success talking with Lou who tries to get Rusty to talk about being sad.
Jack and Rusty have been building a fort from odds and ends of wood. Rusty visits his fort only to discover three older boys are destroying all their work. Rusty tries to stop the boys but they say Rusty and Jack do not own their fort.
"I don't see your name on it,' the minister's son said"
Rusty retorts saying "You have your names on these bikes?"
Rusty grabs a bike but the older boys chase him so he drops the bikes and runs away as fast as he can. That night Rusty has an idea. He has some tins of brown paint taken from his Auntie's house. He did intend to use the paint on the fort but instead he transforms himself into Brown - the superhero. Wearing a cape, mask, brown belt and his brown T-shirt he takes the brown paint and heads off into the night to attack the bikes owned by the three bullies. Mysteriously when he puts on his Brown superhero clothes the old pocket watch begins to tick and later that night, after the deed is done, he meets his Grandpa and he offers some wisdom to Rusty.
The bullies are furious but are unable to prove Rusty committed the crime. Then Jack joins in and the next night be paints another bike belonging to the bullies - Black. On the third night, Lou joins in with Blue paint but the bullies have beaten them to the blue tins and they have covered the church spire with "rude words." Now it is Anton, Ruben and the minster's son who find themselves in serious trouble.
Through the course of the story Rusty meets his Grandpa three times. The final time his Grandpa explains he will now have to move on.
Take a look at some reviews:
Here are the author and illustrator names with the correct Norwegian markings:
Håkon Øvreås
Øyvind Torseter
When I saw this little book in a store today it appealed to me because:
- I really like the cover
- I am curious about books in translation - this book was originally published in Norway
- The blurb said the book is very popular in Norway
- Inside the book there are clever line drawings with bright splashes of colour and lots of white space
- Brown looked like a good junior novel and I am always on the hunt for appealing stories for the younger readers in my school library
When I came home my curiosity increased when:
- I discovered this book won the Mildred L Batchelder Award in 2020
- I read that Brown has been published in 32 languages
- making the discovery that it was an award winner explained how this book came to be stocked at Beachside Bookshop in the Sydney suburb of Avalon
- Oyvind Torseter is the illustrator of The Hole - another very quirky book from Norway
- Brown has been made into a stage production (in English)
Readers aged 8+ will enjoy Brown. I am not sure if the sequels to Brown - Black and Super Laura, are available in Australia. Here they are in Norweigan:
Here are some other books translated into English that I have read recently and my two favourite translated classics - Momo and Conrad the story of a factory made boy.
Brown reminded me of two older Australian books (still in print) by James Maloney - Swashbuckler and the sequel Buzzard Breath and Brains.
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