Stina

I grew up in Scandinavia and find this book to be an excellent way to share a bit of my childhood with my kids while enjoying a sweet story and lovely illustrations. The illustration details and the tone of the story are "spot on" for the time period in which the book was written.

Stina is a story about a girl and her grandfather and their life in Scandanvia. The girl likes to go outside and look for treasures like feathers and pieces of glass jars. He grandfather likes to drink coffee. One day, the radio announces that a storm is coming. That night, the grandfather goes to give her a goodnight kiss, but she isn't there, so he he goes out to look for her. When he finds her, she is crying. The storm has her very scared. She tells her grandfather that she went out to look for the storm then her grandfather tells her to put her raincoat on. The next day she goes out to the shore. She finds a shelf from a dresser on the ground. She puts all of her other treasures in it. Then she and her grandfather are happy.

Reading this book to my child reminds me of my childhood summers on the beach. Stina collects all kinds of things from the ocean, feathers, driftwood, beach glass... If you have spent days by the sea, how can you not identify with it. I also like the special relationship between grandfather and granddaughter. I believe it is nice for children to have special people in their lives besides mom and dad and this book is an example of that kind of special person