The Duck Who Was Afraid to Fly
The Duck lives in a city where everyone else’s lives are so interesting and important, they seem to have a purpose even in their everyday life. The Duck, however, is having strange symptoms and anxiety, and it is only when the doctor diagnoses the condition as fear of flying. The Duck should try it but its muscles ache. It admires the swan’s dancing and graceful flying. It puts on a tulle skirt and imitates the swan’s elegant movements, in secret behind a tree. But the Duck cannot fly – it only falls on its beak! The Ducks journey of gaining confidence and forgetting about what others think, is told with a fresh voice and illustrated in bold colours by a genious pairing of established talents. Veera Salmi’s wise, urban tale is brought to life in the magnificent paintings of Matti Pikkujämsä.
info
Year of publication
2019
Original title
Sorsa Aaltonen ja lentämisen oireet
Page count
32
Original publisher
Otava
Reviews
Arvid Lydecken jury
“The Duck Who Was Afraid to Fly (Sorsa Aaltonen ja lentämisen oireet) is a spot-on-metaphor of us humans and our inner restraints.”
Runeberg Junior Jury
“The Duck Who Was Afraid to Fly is a mesmerizing book about overcoming self-doubt. Matti Pikkujämsä’s fresh illustration and Veera Salmi’s hilarious narrative emphasize that the symptoms of flying should be taken seriously. When you dare to dream and let go, anything is possible.”
Nordic Council Literature Prize Jury
The picture book is a modern animal fable. [– –]
The world described in the book is full of disadvantaged and socially vulnerable characters. The cookie queue, where some of the birds get their daily food, refers to the real-world bread queues – which is to say, the growing inequality in the cities. As the narrator of the picture book describes the cookie queue: “This was where those birds whose dreams had not come true received today’s cookie ration.”[– –]
In the world of the picture book, however, urban poverty and the inequality of society are not described in a bleak and sad manner. Pikkujämsä’s humorous illustrations in clear colours displace the serious content, and both the text and the pictures discover some marvellous beauty in the city: The sun shines like “the cream in a cake” and the most beautiful thing of all is to watch the lovely dance of the swans in the lake.[– –]
The way the book plays with different characteristics of birds is also cheerful…In Pikkujämsä’s naivistically colourful illustrations, the birds are birds, and the book’s diversity of species is delightful in its range. In the narrative text, bird sounds are contained in the inventive layout, and for the young reader there are many exciting things to study in the birds.”[– –]
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