Chop Chop – The Story of a Busy Robot
AUGUST PRIZE WINNER – SWEDISH CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024!
THE BRAW AMAZING BOOKSHELF 2025!
Chop Chop dives into a bleak future where mankind’s only hope is a little robot. A story set in a dystopian future where robots and humans coexist and robots have taken over human tasks.
It’s late on earth. But all temporary workers are still busy delivering parcels, chopping trees, and cutting hair. Standing at the assembly line in the chicken factory. Looking after children. Clearing mines. All rushed by a boss with the common phrase: “Hurry up, chop chop!”
“Chop Chop, that’s me”, thinks the little robot.
Chop Chop is programmed to do everything. The pace speeds up – Chop Chop delivers. Chop Chop always does his best. But it’s never enough.
Multi-award winning author-illustrator Linda Bondestam’s fourth solo picture book Chop Chop is a thought-provoking picture book with a dose of civilisation critique combined with humour and melancholy. What happens to the world when the wheels roll at turbo speed?
Published in Finnish by Teos.
Publishing information
Rights sold
- Catalan
- Danish
- Spanish
- Estonian
- Complex Chinese
Awards & nominations
Awards
2025
The Braw Amazing Bookshelf
2024
The Most Beautiful Books of Finland
2024
August Prize
Nominations
2025
Runeberg Junior Prize
2025
Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize
2024
Children’s and Youth Literature Finlandia Prize
Reviews
"Chop Chop is not only one of the best children's books I've read this year, it's also one of the best books I've read this year."
"Part of the book’s appeal is its humour. Bondestam includes jokes for the adult audience such as a reference to the song ‘Öppna landskap’ (Open Landscapes) by Ulf Lundell. The irony of one robot being replaced by another robot is also not lost on mature readers (...) Children may especially connect with Chop Chop’s size in the illustrations. Unlike the other robots, he is small, not the height of the adult characters in the book, but just the size of the children. (...) While other modern picture books would have ended after Chop Chop and the manager are fired from the shipping plant, or perhaps would have found a new situation for Chop Chop much sooner, the courageous spirit at the heart of this book more than makes up for its lengthy plot."
"In Chop Chop Bondestam curiously explores the picture book format through landscape panoramas, illustrations that bleed beyond their frames, and an unusually high page count for a picture book. The contrasting yet subtly smudged colour palette works effectively alongside sharp and concise phrases and snappy dialogue. Form, colour, and text combine seamlessly into a cohesive and compelling picture book narrative. With Chop Chop, Bondestam continues to boldly explore the picture book format both in content and form. As in My Life at the Bottom, she demonstrates a unique ability to (children’s) literarily portray burning contemporary societal issues. Neither climate catastrophe, war, nor the end of the world are foreign themes in this cohesive body of work, which warmly and rebelliously insists on conversations about the conditions for life on our planet. Even within the themes of robotics and AI versus working life under capitalist terms, Bondestam manages to squeeze out a hopeful vision of new possibilities."
"The size of the book and the choice of materials do justice to the insightful illustrations, which play a key role in the narrative. The illustrations use a wide range of narrative imagery in a varied and justified way. The element of surprise remains until the end of the work. Apart from the effect varnish on the cover, the book has a matte finish throughout, which soothes the reading experience."
"She tells her story with a great deal of humour and you can actually feel hope for the future after reading her original multi-layered book."
"Linda Bondestam's saga of the future, critical of civilisation, contains both melancholy and humour in both text and images and could become a classic in the same way that the saga of Karl-Bertil Jonsson's Christmas Eve has become one. It deserves to be."
"I have long been in the habit of buying Linda Bondestam's books for my nephews as Christmas and birthday presents. I will continue to do so in the future."
"With a charmingly skewed, airy mixing technique and an aesthetic that quite often brings to mind Gunilla Bergström's early books about Alfie Atkins, Bondestam creates a challenging allegory of a society built on everything going fast, yes, preferably even faster than it did yesterday."
“An original, multi-layered picture book in which readers of all ages can find different themes and details and make different interpretations. Almost surreal in style, Chop Chop deals with the big questions of life, existence and humanity in a humorous and bold way. Phenomenal, wild illustrations transport the sympathetic protagonist from one situation and time to the next in this thought-provoking and startling story, which also offers a critique towards modern society and our way of life.”
“In this exceptional picture book, a tireless little robot meets the pests of the modern world from abusing the workforce to arms race and nuclear war. Quirky and insightful illustrations and the viewpoint of the innocent robot’s journey depict human life with astonishing sharpness. Despite the heavy themes, the book is ultimately full of hope and even a catastrophe will sprout a new and perfect life.”
“Linda Bondestam pushes the boundaries of the picture book format, both in terms of scope and theme, with this dystopian robot epic. Armed with equal parts humour and subtle social criticism, she draws a near future in which the existence of both humans and robots is questioned. No one needs to fear that Bondestam herself would be replaceable, this master epic shows that she can deliver. Chop chop!”
"With her new picture book ‘Chop chop’, Linda Bondestam consolidates her position as one of the Nordic region's most innovative and bold picture book artists."
"The book is at its best when it's funny - for example when Chop Chop cleans the office and sings "I'm most comfortable in open office environments, I want to live here at work".
"Chop Chop is a masterpiece of our most popular picture book author, a picture book creator of original and unique picture-text stories, with an instantly recognizable style."
