Kenneth Glad
Stories for young audiences are becoming part of a larger argument about trust and protection. The fiercest objections often come from adults, not children.
In Norway, books for children are often expected to answer questions that other countries may avoid.
The Guardian writes that Norwegian writers and illustrators have taken on birth, death, abuse, sexuality, grief and family trauma with an openness that’s likely to surprise foreign readers.
The argument is simple but demanding: Children already notice fear, conflict and confusion, so books can give shape to what they may not yet be able to explain.
A book about birth
Anna Fiske’s How Do You Make a Baby? shows reproduction, IVF, insemination, adoption and childbirth through plain, lively drawings.
The book drew death threats from Canada and was banned from several school libraries in the United States, where critics, according to the British newspaper, called it pornographic.
In Norway, the reaction was very different. Fiske’s “How to” series has sold more than 100,000 copies, and she received the Honorary Brage award in 2025.
Fiske said the backlash puzzled her because she did not see the book as provocative.
“I wasn’t aware that I am such a brave writer and illustrator,” she told The Guardian. “I just tell things as they are.”
At the Lillehammer literature festival, director Marit Borkenhagen pointed to books about exclusion, bullying, identity, queer literature, climate issues, mental health and people forced to flee their homes.
That range suggests a publishing culture less focused on innocence as silence, and more focused on giving children words and images for what they may encounter.
Hope stays central
Writer and illustrator Svein Nyhus, whose work with Gro Dahle has addressed domestic violence and incest, said to the paper that form matters most. “It’s all about form,” he said.
For Nyhus, the boundary is not the subject itself, but the emotional destination. The one taboo, he said, is “to take away hope from children … I would never do that”.
Fiske echoed that view when asked whether some ideas are too much for young readers. “No. Nothing is too much. It’s how you tell it,” she said.
Norway’s system gives writers unusual space: The state buys large numbers of books for national libraries and authors can receive public grants.
That support means children’s books are not judged only by likely sales. It helps explain why Norwegian authors can treat books as tools for understanding, not just products for a market.
Source: The Guardian
