I don’t know what kind of fairy tale, and what kind of creatures. But the room is clearly magical, and interesting to look at.

And then the granddaughter took his grandfather out to the wonderful garden and vegetable garden.

Sven Nordkvist: “I like to do everything myself. I did animation myself and built the house myself, so while participating in an illustration competition, I wrote the book myself.”

Swedish writer Sven Nordqvist was born in 1946 on the Scandinavian Peninsula. But it was in Scandinavia that the best children's writers in the world lived: Hans Christian Andersen, Selma Lagerlöf, Astrid Lindgren, Tove Jansson, Erlend Lu and many others.
In 1981, Nordqvist, almost by accident, took part in a children's illustration competition announced by the Swedish publishing house OPAL. So, Nordkvist’s first own book, “Agaton Eman and the Alphabet,” won the competition.

His book was published in 1984 "Birthday Pie", the first in the famous series about the old farmer Petson and his smart kitten Findus. Thanks to this series, in which 8 more books were subsequently published, he became famous, first in his homeland, and then in Europe, primarily in Germany, where his heroes are known as Pettersson and Findus. In Denmark they are called Peddersen and Findus, and in many English translations— Festus and Mercury (although there are translations with the original names). Based on the books about Findus and Petson, films and cartoons were created, and a computer game was also created. In Russia, the famous illustrator and writer is known from the series of books “Mama Mu” and “Petson and Findus”.

Initially, S. Nurdquist was going to create the story of two old men, constantly busy with something important, but due to the distracting activities that momentarily appear on their way, they eventually forget what they were originally striving for. One of these characters was the already middle-aged eccentric Petson. Since Petson constantly needed an interlocutor to develop the plot, the writer found him in the form of the mischievous, human-speaking kitten Findus.

Petson is an absent-minded middle-aged man living alone in a house on the edge of a small Swedish village, in the outback. He is a reliable friend and is always there when Findus gets into trouble (and this happens to him all the time). Petson is constantly making, inventing and improving something on his farm. He is the author of all sorts of impossible and strange devices.

Findus in the stories of S. Nurdkvist - this is a young, cheerful and quick to play cat. He received his strange name from Petson because he came to his owner’s house in a box with the inscription “Findus green peas"(Findus is the name of a large Swedish concern that produces food products). Findus is restless and eccentric, he is constantly “everywhere” and “nowhere”. Findus can talk, but hides it from Petson’s fellow villagers*. In addition to them, there are many other funny characters in the books: Pettson’s chickens, a cow, Pettson’s neighbor Gustavson and, of course, fictional characters MUKLES, who definitely live out their lives in Nordqvist’s drawings, try to help Findus everywhere :)))

The world of Nordquist created in the series of these books is simply UNIQUE! Everything is thought out down to the details, and how many of these funniest details can be found in Petson’s abode itself: here are his funny inventions, here is a bedside table on skis, here are chickens drinking tea in beads, and eggs lie in nests with rattles, here is a long bakery and...many, many, many interesting things!

I have only 6 books from this series so far, which I will now show you selectively in double-page spreads.
I must admit that a talking kitten is just a dream of my childhood, when I had a cat as tabby as Findus, and most of all in my life I dreamed that she would talk and that I could play with her and dress her... But after all, childhood dreams remain forever...:))

Currently, many books are not on sale, BUT periodically some of them go on sale, so if you want to collect a series of books about a naughty kitten, then I recommend buying what is available for now, and then those that appear. Because when other books in this series appear, those that existed disappear from sale.

For example, on sale now :

The following books are expected to arrive:

In addition to the books in the series themselves, the publishing house has released additional books, coloring books, and cookbooks:

I also have a coloring book about Petson and Findus :))

Petson and his kitten live in a small house in a small village. Petson has a chicken coop, two barns and a garden. Around the village there are green meadows and fields, and behind them a dense forest begins.

The village considers Petson an eccentric. When neighbors start gossiping with each other about this and that, you won’t be able to tell where the truth is and where the lies are.

Of course, they are right in some ways - Petson is indeed very absent-minded and forgetful. Plus, he loves to talk to his kitten when no one is around. Of course, Petson is not exactly like everyone else. There is nothing wrong with this, however, but one day neighbor Gustavson said this...

He saw with his own eyes how Petson kneaded a very strange dough for a pie, and then for some reason climbed onto the roof, although he was going to go to the store. And he tied the kitten by the tail to the curtain! And all this happened in reality, because Gustavson would not have made it up. Well, do people usually behave like Petson? “He’s still weird,” the neighbors decided.

What the neighbors had been discussing for so long happened on Findus’s birthday. The kitten celebrates it three times a year because it's more fun. And every time Findus has a birthday, Petson bakes him a birthday cake.

That morning, Petson, as usual, went to the chicken coop and collected a full basket of eggs. Then he sat down on a bench in front of the house and began to clean the dirt from the shell. Petson tried very hard to keep everything in order, so he wanted the eggs to be clean and beautiful. Findus impatiently paced around the bench and waited for the owner to finally get to work on the pie.

- Is it really necessary to do this NOW? - the kitten grumbled. “My birthday will come before you have time to knead the dough.”

“Don’t worry,” Petson reassured him. - Now let's make the pie. Let's take three eggs and go to the kitchen. You'll see, we'll make it in time.

“Of course, we’ll have time,” answered Findus.

He was already in the kitchen and trying to find a frying pan.

They left the basket of eggs in the garden.

Petson broke the eggs into a bowl.

Now we need milk, sugar, a little salt, butter and flour,” he said and reached into the closet. But there was no flour there.

-Where could the flour be? Did you happen to eat all our flour, Findus? – Pettson shouted from the closet.

“Yes, I’ve never eaten flour in my life,” the kitten said offended.

“Did I eat it myself?” Petson thought and scratched the back of his head.

He climbed into the closet three times, looked in the stove, in the wardrobe, and even checked to see if there was flour under the sofa, but he never found anything.

— I’ll have to go to the store and buy flour. Wait for me here, I’ll be back soon,” Petson told the kitten and began to take out his blue bicycle.

But the kitten did not want to wait at home and ran out into the street before the owner.

Just as Petson was about to get on his bike and ride, his friend noticed that the rear wheel was flat.

- What is this? Findus, have you really chewed a hole in the tire? – Petson asked angrily.

“I never chew tires at all,” Findus answered offendedly.

“It looks like I chewed through the tire myself,” muttered a frustrated Petson and scratched behind his ear. - Okay, never mind. Now I’ll bring the tools, quickly fix everything, go to the store for flour and we’ll finish the pie.

Findus decided not to wait for the owner and rushed to the barn.

Petson went to the barn door and tried to open it, but it didn’t work! The door was locked and the key was nowhere to be found.

- What would that mean? “I never locked this door before,” Petson got angry. - Did you lose the key, Findus?

“I have never lost a single key in my life,” Findus was offended.

“I guess I lost it myself.” What a shame,” Petson grumbled and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Just in case, he looked out the window, then tried the door again, but it did not budge.

Findus leaned over the well and called the owner. Petson hurried there.

- Just look! The key lies at the very bottom. HOW could he have ended up there? And HOW do we get it from there? – Petson stood at the well and, biting his lip, thought. Got it! If I tie a hook to a long stick, I can fish out the key. Do you have any stick, Findus?

“I’ve never had a long stick in my life,” answered Findus. He didn't know whether he should be offended this time too.

“Then you’ll have to look for it yourself.” “Petson thought about it and pulled his hat down better. - Wait a minute, now we’ll come up with something. We'll find something suitable. Let's get the key, go into the barn, take the tools, fix the bike, I'll go to the store for flour, and we'll finish the pie.

But the kitten did not wait, he was the first to run for the stick.

Petson and Findus began looking everywhere for a long stick: in the chicken coop, behind the barn, in the garden, under the sofa and in the closet. But we couldn't find anything suitable anywhere. Until finally Petson remembered that he had a fishing rod in the attic.

“The fishing rod will do just fine,” thought Petson. “You just need to bring a ladder, climb onto the roof, and from there into the attic.” But the stairs are behind the barn where Anderson's pasture begins. His bull is sleeping in the pasture, and instead of a pillow he has my ladder. I don't dare go there and get her, because then the bull will wake up and get angry. We should deceive him. But how to do this?

Petson tugged at his beard and thought.

—Have you never taken part in a bullfight? – Findus asked the owner after much thought.

“No, no, I’ve never chased a bull in my life,” the kitten answered in fear.

“It’s a pity,” Petson sighed. “Because if we don’t manage to drive away the bull, we won’t be able to bring the ladder and won’t get into the attic where the fishing rod is.” This means I won’t get the key out of the well, won’t go into the barn, won’t take tools, won’t fix my bike, won’t go to the store for flour. And there will be no cake. What's a birthday without cake?

Findus was silent for a while, then said:

“Of course, I teased the cows once or twice.” I think I can drive away the old bull, if you want it so much.

— I really want PIE. – Petson squinted slyly and looked at the kitten. “You run the fastest when you’re not lazy.” Now I'll bring something so you can give this bull a good run. Wait, I'll be back soon. - And Petson went to the house.

In the kitchen, Petson took off the yellow curtain with red flowers and brought a gramophone and a record from the living room.

Then he went out into the yard and tied the curtain tightly to Findus's tail.

“Something like these curtains are used in Spain during bullfights,” the owner explained to the kitten. - Well, now wait for my signal.

Petson moved the gramophone closer to the fence behind which the bull was sleeping, put on the record and began to turn the handle. The song “To the Sea” sounded.

“This will wake up anyone,” Petson grinned.

When the song just started, the bull shook his head sleepily, stomped around, but did not wake up. The fact is that the singer sang the first verse quite quietly. But then he sang at the top of his voice, and the bull woke up.

He was very angry that he was disturbed:

- What kind of disgrace is this?

The bull looked gloomily at the bumblebee, which was flying above his head. No, that's not the noise. There was a noise somewhere behind. The bull turned and saw Petson, Findus and the gramophone.

- Now remove this noise! - The bull roared. “Otherwise I’ll remove it myself!”

The bull bowed his head and prepared to jump. All his muscles tensed, and he rushed to where Petson, the kitten and the gramophone were.

- Run! – the owner whispered to Findus. - Run as fast as you can!

And Findus rushed forward like a comet, and a yellow-red curtain flew behind him. As soon as the bull
When he saw her, he rushed after her. He had not yet fully woken up and was so angry that he decided that all the commotion had started because of this chopper.

As soon as the bull was out of sight, Petson hurriedly crawled under the fence and took the ladder. He barely had time

Sven Nordqvist. Life in pictures / Transl. with Swedish K. Kovalenko. - M.: “White Crow”, 2017. - p. 334

An energetic, clean-shaven resident of Stockholm, Sven Nordqvist looks completely different from his most famous character - the affable, bearded old man Pettson from a small Swedish village. But they have something in common: Nordkvist also lived in the village for a long time, loved to spend time in his own carpentry workshop and, like Petson, prefers a sedentary lifestyle and does not particularly strive, as they say now, to socialize. The popularity of Nordkvist's main characters is such that the first association that comes to mind when hearing the artist's name is the old man Petson and his friend, the kitten in green pants, Findus. Someone else will remember the cow with an active life position, Mamu Mu (The White Crow, 2015) and her feathered neurasthenic friend Crax, and the most venerable experts will praise certain non-serial books, among which a prominent place is occupied by “Bosch for Preschoolers” - “Where my sister?" (“White Crow”, 2016).

Two years ago, “White Crow” began reprinting Nordkvist’s books, which had previously been published in various publishing houses, but had by then gone out of print. Now Nordqvist is the longest-running project of the young, fast-growing editorial team. Carefully developing it, she released a compact but capacious album of the artist “Life in Pictures” (“White Crow”, 2017), the Swedish version of which was released in 2014. Sven Nordqvist talks about his “creative cuisine”. He describes key points his own development, and uses his works as illustrations - taken from published books or archival materials that will someday end up in the Nordqvist Museum. It is possible that the album serves as a remote interview of the artist, who in his adulthood was tired of travel and forced communication. A sort of involuntary “hold here - I’ll tell you everything and show you, just don’t bother me.”

This publication can be considered compact only in terms of size, while the volume of 334 pages prepares for a leisurely and thorough immersion in the topic. Since 2014, the author-illustrator has published new books in his popular series and moved on already tested topics (a new book on a biblical story, for example), so today the album can, in general, be considered a voluminous story about the artist’s work.

Considering that only a small part of Nordqvist’s bibliography has been mastered by the Russian reader, the album will predictably contain a lot of information about books that have little chance of being published in Russian (like, say, documentary books on the history of Sweden). Here you can find diverse information about the artist, from his first children's drawings to major national projects. Nordqvist divided the album into conventional thematic sections - early work, printmaking, illustrations for children's books, paintings and sketches, Advent calendars and a workshop - not a single available biography or detailed interview will tell you more about him. There is also enough information about famous books to take a fresh look at familiar illustrations. In fact, fresh: illustrations in isolation from the text, which is exactly how Nordkvist’s pictures are presented in the album in most cases, acquire greater artistic independence and can be endowed with new meanings at the will of the reader. The square format of the publication frames the illustrations differently, and this seeming detail plays a certain role.

Along with quite ordinary biographical facts - since childhood he was fond of drawing, copied idols (there is a curious combination of engravings by Gustav Dore and comics from the cult American magazine MAD), failed when entering the Higher School of Arts, was engaged in commercial illustration, decided to write texts for books on his own so that do not adapt to the authors - interesting details are also mentioned. For example, Nordqvist recalls his active collaboration with the global organization Amnesty International, and also talks about how, as part of an American remote course for illustrators, he was taught to “draw beautifully,” while after the Swedish school, in his opinion, everything could have been different. Here you can guess whether this is just philistine reasoning, “But everything could have been completely different,” or the result of a comparison of his early works with then-current Swedish children's illustration. It is difficult to find out more precisely; his wide popularity brought him to the first echelon of illustrators, and the general fabric of modern Swedish children's illustration was formed with his participation. An illustrative example is the experience described in the book of creating wallpaper in the meeting room of the Swedish Academy of Children's Books (a very venerable organization that is a model of concern for children's reading at the national level). Sven Nordqvist needed to include as many of the most popular characters in Swedish books for children as possible into his picture. And they all look very organic there.

However, at the very beginning of his career, Nordqvist did not think at all about children's books. Although a style close to the depiction of the village life of Petson and his neighbors can be seen, oddly enough, on culinary posters made by the artist commissioned by one private company. Details and nuances of Swedish life will later migrate to Petson’s farm. And yet, for the time being, the artist’s main interests lay in the field of various printing techniques from etching to silk-screen printing. Everything changed when the children were born - the family left for the village. The move was followed by a discovery: what was more interesting to draw would look best in children's books. Nordkvist did not want to write on his own (he generally does not like texts or writing), nor did he want to fit into the framework of someone else’s imagination. I didn’t really want the latter; as a result, Sven Nordqvist became both an illustrator and an author of children’s books.

Illustration courtesy of Belaya Vorona Publishing House

He dwells in detail on each book that is important to him, shows sketches and first versions of the layout, and shares many interesting facts. Unfortunately, Nordqvist does not shed any light on the origins of the charming mukles, fairy-tale creatures and public favorites who live side by side with the people in his books. He doesn’t mention them at all, but it will become clear to readers when and under what circumstances Findus, the main cat of modern children’s literature, appeared. Stories about the lonely farmer Petson, who found the object of his father's affection in an active kitten, are a huge success all over the world. They capture the essence of how a measured child's life turns out to be filled with vigorous activity and acute experiences. Findus serves as the ideal archetype of a modern child: he is loved, deservedly feels like the center of everyone’s attention, trusts a safe world, is persistent in his aspirations, is sincere in expressing emotions, makes mistakes and gets the opportunity to realize them. Detailed watercolor illustrations saturate the space of the book: the kitten Findus is able to be everywhere at once, Petson’s household is replete with amazing little things that Findus’s paws and the ubiquitous mukles are drawn to, and the chickens, which Petson cares for as family members, participate in a vibrant social life. Stories about the funny adventures of the main characters can touch on serious topics without a hint of didacticism - fear of loneliness, jealousy, rivalry within the family, emotional sensitivity.

The series of books about Petson and Findus, in the opinion of the author, has now exhausted itself and required a new approach. Nordqvist seems to have found a solution in a change of address, and in recent years, with new enthusiasm, he has begun creating picture books for the little ones with the famous duo as the main characters (only one book has been translated into Russian so far - “Four Secrets of Findus”: “ White Crow", 2015).

Illustration courtesy of Belaya Vorona Publishing House

Nordqvist mentions several occasions when he wrote books to meet the specific requirements of a publishing competition or a planned exhibition. An interesting model of work, poorly represented in Russian book publishing. Something in this seems characteristic of a highly developed book market. The artist also admits that, despite his love for free drawing and painting, he rarely has enough time for this; most often he takes up oil and brush (and also includes audio versions of classic books) when he is warming up for his main work - illustrating texts. And a completely unambiguous homage to the focus on results is the admission that attempts to draw comics turned out to be unproductive, because “each picture takes too much time compared to how much time readers look at them later.” * - Sven Nordqvist. Life in pictures / trans. with Swedish K. Kovalenko. - M.: “White Crow”, 2017. P.168. At the same time, he finds time for non-profit projects quite often and even mentions that he does not consider it possible to take fees for them, this is met with misunderstanding from the organizers (a delightful contrast with our reality, in which they like to take advantage of the work of others free of charge).

For the first time, Nordkvist risked illustrating someone else’s book for the sake of the cow Mama Mu and the raven Krux, authors Thomas and Juja Wislander. The Wislanders successfully staged radio plays, where the main character is a cow, which regularly succeeds in doing things that are not at all typical of artiodactyls, such as reading, riding a bicycle, or even building a tree house, and a raven, desperately trying to reason with its friend and persuade her not to violate conservative rules. way of things. The work ahead was difficult, because the illustrations had to correspond to the existing audio image of Mama Mu. They had to redraw it several times before the authors “recognized” their character. The first experience of working together with authors on a children's book turned out to be successful; Nordqvist ceased to be afraid of other writers and subsequently more than once agreed to act only as a book illustrator.

Illustration courtesy of Belaya Vorona Publishing House

An important stage for Nordqvist was the almost Boschian “Where is my sister?”, which had been waiting in the wings for twenty years. A living example of the fact that pictures were always more important for Sven Nordqvist - the illustrations here were drawn long before the appearance of the text, which the artist did not want to write at all. Therefore, the pictures sat for many years until the author came up with an abstract story, pushed into the background by luxurious illustrations. The plot about the search for a lost mouse seems to serve as a pretext for creating amazing phantasmagorical worlds in which the wanted heroine could find herself (she really hides at every turn and directly calls for a game of “find and show” with children).

In addition to children's books in his album, the artist talks about exercises with oil and ink, that he prefers listening to their audio versions to the accompaniment of which he works, about various projects in which he became a participant - from computer game based on stories about Petson and Findus to samples for painting the walls of a children's hospital and inventive installations and play areas for children.

Sven Nordqvist is seventy this year, and it is still premature to call his album a collection of “lifetime achievements.” He continues to do what he excels at - arousing the delight and admiration of children and their parents with skillfully drawn pictures that capture the key images of a happy childhood.

Audio tale Petson and Findus, a work by Sven Nordqvist. You can listen to the story online or download it. The audiobook “Petson and Findus” is presented in mp3 format.

Audio tale by Petson and Findus, contents:

The audio tale Petson and Findus consists of kind and cheerful stories, the first of which began with how one day old man Petson was given a kitten - funny Findus.

At first he was an ordinary cat and loved to listen carefully to the funny stories that Petson told him. He listened and listened, and even began to talk!

Do you know how to convince a fox to stop stealing chickens from the henhouse? And our friends know - they succeeded with the help of a whole box of fireworks, a ghost, a fake chicken and a cable car.

And then they went camping, because Findus wanted to know what it was like to spend the night in a tent. True, he never found out, because he was scared and preferred to sleep in his bed.

Once in our online audio fairy tale, Petsen was in a bad mood, and his faithful cat tried his best to cheer up his owner. So they went fishing. Is there any doubt that good mood quickly returned to Petson?!

Findus believes that birthdays should be celebrated three times a year. To bake a festive pie once again, the old man went to the village to buy flour and of course, as always, there were some adventures!

Friends are not bored both at home and on a walk, and at work. And the garden has completely turned into a field for investigation for them - after all, they definitely need to find out who spoiled the potatoes?!