Anna-Clara Tidholm

dren noticed with despair that the
monkeys arm was broken.
– I felt very irritated by such a
mistake. But when the story was to
be reprinted in an anthology. I got
a chance to correct the mistake, so I
did. It was a good feeling.
The picture is the most important
in an infant book, but the text is
also important. The words themselves
are not only significant, they
form a rhythm, a melody and are
by that an entrance to the language,
explains Anna-Clara who very carefully
has formulated two-wordssentences
like
“Ute regnar
himmel grå
Vara inne
Hitta på!”
(Out raining
Sky grey
Be inside
Find out!)
And
”Lilla huset
Blåa dörren
Ska vi gå
Och hälsa på?”
(Little house
Door blue
Shall we go
Drop in?)
Books must have a way in, otherwise
the supposed reader will be
left outside the door, excluded from
the bookpages and their content. A
carefully formulated text in combination
with interplaying pictures
can open up the book wide to small
children.
– Sometimes parents write to me
and tell me that they have read for
example Knock, knock, knock! with
their child. “He is just nine months
old and wow, it works”, they say
with enthusiasm. They are happy
and I am happy. You won’t have that
feeling, if the book is on the wrong
level.
Round Sweden there are a lot of
reading promotion projects going
on, more or less successful.
Municipalities that give money for
reading-projects and give books to
children who enter school or preschool
or celebrate one year or are
newborn. A well-intentioned work
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