European
Picture 
Book
Collection

Country: Finland
Language: Swedish
Title: Vest-Linnea och monstermamman      ( Vesta-Linnea and the monster-mum)
Author: Tove Appelgren
Illustrator: Salla Savolainen
Publisher: Söderström & C:O Fölags AB   - Helsingfors
ISBN: 951-52-1948-5
Chosen by: Maija Korhonen, IBBY, Finland                                                                                                                     

Rationale for Choice:
A delightful universal tale of family conflict which is resolved through love and kindness.

Re-telling
The peace of the whole house is disturbed when Vesta-Linnea has a bad day. The quarrel gets bigger and bigger and, in the end, Mum and Vesta-Linnea don't talk to each other because it's not always easy to say I'm sorry!

Translation:
2
“Noooooo! I don´t want !” What a noise! Where does it come from? Who is shouting?

“Myself! I'll do it myself!”

Oh my god, what a bellowing , a little animal like me may suffer a heart attack. And fall from the tree and twist my tail.

Over there is an open window. Who is shouting there and what does she want?

Does she want something or nothing at all?

5
Vesta-Linnea's mother is thinking the same thing: “ Do you want me to help you?

Vesta-Linnea is murmuring.

“ My darling”, mother says, “Tell me what you want. Do you want to do it yourself? You can do it.”

“Neither.”

“That's not possible”, mother declares.

“ I hate my tights!” Vesta-Linnea says. Mother is aware of that. They go droopy. Everybody knows that.

7
“Now it is time to put on thetights, so we can go out. I don´t want to be late”, mother says. In a very, very calm voice.

“But I don´t want to…”

“Be quiet!” mother interrupts and still sounds very calm, but as nice as a hungry polar bear which is wedged in the ice. Vesta-Linnea knows that soon it will begin to happen. Soon mother will be really angry. It would be better to get dressed now, on the quiet. What if I had a broad smile. What if I should say I am sorry. But…

9
“You are interrupting me! You are not allowed to interrupt! You have said it yourself and so it is!”   What will happen now? Vesta-Linnea is holding her breath. Was it worth to talk like that? She was almost thinking …   good. . M other isn't saying anything? She keeping quiet. Vesta-Linnea is almost missing the hungry polar bear.

“ In five minutes I ´ll go. If you want to come with me … you know”, mother says and turns fiercely.

10
Vesta-Linnea hears her mother go to the bathroom to brush her hair. She is brushing angrily. Vesta-Linnea gets dressed. The disgusting tights.

She goes to her mother. She wants to say something to her, but mother is not looking at her at all. Mother is still brushing. Angrily.

12
On the way to the hairdressers mother keeps quiet.

15
But at the hairdressers she coos like always. But she is not talking to Vesta-Linnea . “I don´t care a bit for you”, Vesta-Linnea is thinking, “ if you don't care for me”. Vesta-Linnea is smiling her most beautiful smile to the hairdresser, who is saying how nice and intelligent she is. Vesta-Linnea is not able to hear what mother is mumbling.

16
  On the way home they go shopping. Mother is still saying nothing but “Would you open the door” or “Don´t chew your nails”. Vesta-Linnea goes to the nursery. Mother is doing something in the kitchen. Is she angry? It is difficult to see from here on the tree, the windows have not been washed for some time. She looks sad. She is sitting on the kitchen sofa. She sighs and gets up. She is sitting down once again. Her hair is fine, why does mother look so sullen? If she doesn't put the milk in the fridge soon, it will go sour. Doesn't she know that?

19
Vesta-Linnea is playing with   her doll's dishes. They are made of porcelain.

She is laying the table. One cup for the little sister, one for Viktor. None for mother. A plate under and beside each cup. You have to be very careful with the porcelain, mother says that it breaks easily. The same as with the real plates and glasses, although these are meant for dolls. Very fragile these kind of porcelain dishes. Vesta-Linnea puts the dishes in a row on the edge of the window sill. Too near the edge. “ I hope that nothing is going to break, when everything seems to be so unstable!” Vesta-Linnea is thinking. Suddenly mother is standing at the door of the nursery. Klirr!

Vesta-Linnea is so afraid that she pushes a cup on the floor by acccident. It's now in three pieces.

20
Vesta-Linnea starts to cry. Mother is shouting: “Is this the way you handle your toys? Don´t you know that there are children who don´t have toys and here you are throwing yours all over the place! What are you thinking? Clean up the broken pieces at once! And throw them to the basket before somebody gets hurt!” Vesta-Linnea is crying more loudly, she is screaming. “I cannot hear what you are saying! Stop shouting!” mother cries. “Let´s stick it together! It is possible to glue it! Vesta-Linnea is trying to say while crying and sobbing. “Clean it up at once! Or I shall come and do it!” Vesta-Linnea keeps crying. She is sitting on the carpet and cries and cries and cannot stop crying.

22
Mother takes a plastic bag and picks up the pieces. She is so angry that she is trembling . Also she has floods of tears in her eyes.

“Noooooo!” Vesta-Linnea is shouting. “ It is possible to glue them!” But mother picks the pieces in the bag and goes away.

“I don´t want to live with you!”

Mother turns back.

“What did you say?”

Vesta-Linnea is not saying anything. Mother goes to the kitchen.

“I don´t want to live with you!”

Mother comes back and says: So that´s what you´re thinking.

She looks as if she would like to say more but then takes a deep breath and says ‘So, that's what you are thinking about…', and leaves.

25
Vesta-Linnea is sadder than ever. She cries and howls and shouts and yells and … falls asleep.

26
The mother is standing in the kitchen with the plastic bag in her hand. She puts the bag in the rubbish basket and sits down on the sofa.

29
The milk is still in the food bag, when Viktor and Paul-Axel return home. “How quiet and cosy it is here. It is fine to be at home!” Viktor says and goes to the kitchen. Paul-Axel finds his sister asleep. He is shaking his head. What has happened here? He takes his lego toys and starts to build a long, long railway. Vesta-Linnea is still asleep iIn the middle of the floor. “She might well be a mountain”, Paul-Axel is thinking.

30
“I am the worst mother in the world”, the mother is crying in the kitchen in the arms of Viktor. “I should not have had children at all! I am a monster- mum!” the mother is sobbing. Viktor is consoling her. Then he goes to see Vesta-Linnea. She is still asleep and is a mountain. Paul-Axel looks at Viktor inquiringly. The mountain awakes. Vesta-Linnea looks confused first at her brother and then at Viktor.

“Where is mother?” she asks.

“In the kitchen”, Viktor says.

31
Vesta-Linna doesn't dare to look at her mother and   Mother doesn't dare to look at Vesta-Linnea. Vesta-Linnea sits down on the sofa. They are sitting as far from each other as it is possible. But the sofa is quite small. Mother is whining in a small voice.

32
“What did you say?” Vesta-Linnea asks.

“Please forgive me, my own dear child.

“Please forgive me, mum”, Vesta-Linnea is hugging mum tightly.

“It is just as I had planned - that we should have a great time together today”, Mum is trying to explain, “but everything went wrong and I was so disappointed that I got angry. I should not have made so many plans. I am not able to plan which mood you are in. And nobody is able to be nice always and in good humour. But it would be very handy”, Mum is smiling.” Now we shall glue that cup together”, she says but wants to add something more. “I don't always like what you do, but I will always love you.” Vesta-Linnea nodds. She feels likewise. “Mum, I don´t always like you, but I will always love you!”

NB This is a working translation for educational purpose only.

Activities for use in school:

•  Read the visual story to your class and discuss why they think Vesta-Linéa is not happy. Focus on pages 3 & 4 . How do her facial expressions and body gestures give us a clue to how she is feeling. What might be going on in her head? Are pages 4/5 a help?

•  Get your pupils to try to think of words to describe her? Jot these down on a board/flipchart

•  Ask them if they have ever felt really grumpy or miserable and why that was. Did they ever blame their mums?

•  In pairs, get them to do a little role-play with a partner. One is VL and the other her mum. Perhaps one or two groups could act this out in front of the class.

•  Read the translation whilst one of the children turns the pages for you; maybe pointing to some of the action.

•  Get the children to either write a short piece of dialogue between VL and her mum, or themselves and their mums.

•  Alternatively, they could write a diary extract of a day when they had felt a bit like VL and how the conflict was resolved.

•  Finally, discuss why we sometimes feel like VL . Is it a case of ‘we always hurt the ones we love' because we know that they will always love us, whatever we do?

Reflection: Do you think that parents and children in other parts of the world have similar conflicts to Vest-Linnea and her mother? How might they be resolved?

NB Further literature and language-based activities can be found in
Picture Books sans Frontières available from tb@trentham-books.co.uk
or www.amazon.co.uk