Swedish Picture Book of the Year / Lilybell and Bluevalley

Pija Lindenbaum’s Vitvivan och Gullsippan [Lilybell and Bluevalley] has been awarded the Snöbollen [Snowball] prize for Swedish Picture Book of the Year 2021. Each year in conjunction with the award ceremony, which takes place during Littfest, Bildmuseet opens an exhibition of original illustrations and sketches from the winning book.

Journalists are welcome to book an appointment for a preview of the exhibition Swedish Picture Book of the Year / Lilybell and Bluevalley from Wednesday 16 March. You are also invited to attend on Saturday 19 March at 14:00, when the exhibition will be officially opened with a discussion between author Pija Lindenbaum and museum curator Brita Täljedal. We will be happy to put you in touch with Pija Lindenbaum to arrange an interview.

Some watch clouds while others carry stones. Some play and learn while some wait on others. And Schäfen has drawn a line that must not be crossed. Pija Lindenbaum’sVitvivan och Gullsippan is a story about the big questions that every child ponders: Who gets to decide, and about what? What is fair? The exhibition at Bildmuseet displays all of the original illustrations and a number of sketches for the picture book. Visitors can also hear Lindenbaum, who wrote and illustrated the book, talk about how it came about.

From the jury’s justification for awarding the prize: “Vitvivan och Gullsippan is a tale that zooms in on the everyday while simultaneously opening up to global issues. The atmosphere is familiar but the topography is new. This consummate picture book by Pija Lindenbaum, discreetly divided into three acts, grows into an allegory of the mechanisms of oppression – and the power of quiet rebellion.”

Pija Lindenbaum (b. 1955) is one of Sweden’s foremost picture book authors. Born and raised in Sundsvall, Lindenbaum studied at Konstfack in Stockholm. She has worked as an illustrator, designer and author since the late 1970s and is behind a host of successful, award-winning picture books that have been translated into many languages.

Lindenbaum’s books are psychological dramas brimming with humour and originality. The children she depicts are multifaceted and immediately recognisable to readers of all ages. Published in 1990, her first picture book Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies won the literary prizes BMF Barnboksplaketten and the Expressen newspaper’s Heffaklump award. Her book Boodil, My Dog won the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year 1992, contributing to Lindenbaum being named Illustrator of the Year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

Published in 1996, Britten and Prince Benny was nominated for the August Prize and was named one of the most beautiful books of the year by Svensk Bokkonst. In 2000, Lindenbaum was awarded the August Prize for Bridget and the Gray Wolves, in 2008 she received the Astrid Lindgren Prize for her complete works, and in 2009 she was awarded the RFSU Prize for her contribution to sexuality education. Lindenbaum has also been awarded many other prizes, including the Elsa Beskow Plaque.

The Snöbollen [Snowball] prize for Swedish Picture Book of the Year 2021 will be presented at the Umeå International Literature Festival (Littfest) on 18 March 2022 at 11:30.Several of Pija Lindenbaum’s books have been dramatized in Sweden and abroad. A film based on her bookMini Mia and her Darling Uncle will premiere in March 2022. The new opera Var är smörgåsen? [Where’s the Sandwich?], with music by Niklas Brommare and for which Lindenbaum has written the libretto and will be designing the sets and costumes, will be staged at the Royal Swedish Opera in spring 2023.

The award for the Swedish Picture Book of the Year, the Snowball, is an initiative by the association Krumelur – Association for Young Words in the North, in cooperation with Umeå Municipality, Kulturföreningen Pilgatan, Bildmuseet and Umeå University, the Regional Library of Västerbotten, Littfest – Umeå International Literature Festival and the Association of Swedish Illustrators and Graphic Designers. This will be the eleventh consecutive year that the award has been made and presented in an exhibition at Bildmuseet.

For further information

helena.vejbrink@bildmuseet.umu.se, +46 (0)90-786 90 73

Brita Täljedal, museum curator and member of the Snowball jury
brita.taljedal@bildmuseet.umu.se, 090-786 77 14