This article focuses on aesthetic and didactic aspects of literary multilingualism and the interaction between these aspects in two contemporary dual-language picturebooks with Sámi motifs and characters. Lilli, áddjá, ja guovssahas/Lilli, farfar och norrskenet (Lilly, Grandpa and the Northern Lights, 2020), written by Elin Marakatt and illustrated by Anita Midbjer, and Gájuoh muv! Gïjrra Almien jah Enoken luvnnie/Rädda mig: Vår hos Almmie och Enok (Save me: Spring at Almmie and Enok’s, 2021), written by Sophia Rehnfjell and illustrated by Inga-Wiktoria Påve, are intended for 3–7-year-olds and combine a Sámi language and Swedish. The analyses show the aesthetic and didactic interplay between verbal and visual elements. The insertion of North Sámi words in an otherwise Swedish text can highlight culture, traditional beliefs, and history, and the Ume Sámi glossaries can be used to talk about the illustrations and learn words pertaining to reindeer husbandry and life in Sápmi. The vocabulary has a didactic function, while the literary text and the illustrations tell stories about the Sámi peoples, thus being both aesthetic and didactic. Literary multilingualism is teamed with didactics and Sámi aesthetics to support language acquisition, to depict and to make visible Sámi culture and Sámi peoples to in-group as well as out-group readers.

This study analyses the interspecies relationship between Sally Jones, a gorilla, and her human companion, the Chief, in three novels by Jakob Wegelius, focusing on this dynamic relationship and how it reframes the narrative. The research explores three main questions: the modes of interspecies communication, the core elements of their companionship and how their mutual dependency subverts notions of human supremacy. The theoretical framework integrates perspectives from human-animal studies, including Donovan’s critique of speciesist ideologies that separate human and animal communication (2017), Haraway’s concepts of mutual dependence (2003) and contact zones (2008) in interspecies relations and Derrida's carnofallogocentrism, which interrogates anthropocentric hierarchies (2002). Methodologically, the study employs close reading of the texts paying attention to details in the texts, based on the research questions, theories and previous research, analyzing verbal and non-verbal communication between Sally and the Chief, as well as their interdependent relationship. Findings reveal that their companionship is rooted in mutual respect and understanding, transcending human-animal hierarchies. This relationship critiques notions of human supremacy, as the Chief and Sally navigate their lives as equals, disrupting conventional ideas of ownership and superiority, as well as species and societal boundaries and fostering empathy for ‘the Other’. The study contributes to the broader discourse on interspecies relationships, showing how narratives can shape ethical understandings of human-animal relations and potentially reshape perceptions of human-animal relationships in children’s literature.

This study is part of a larger action research (AR) project aimed at improving students’ engagement with fiction and reading skills in Swedish and Swedish as a second language. In this paper, a theoretical framework of value creation in social learning spaces is used to critically explore teachers’ professional learning and experienced value in AR in literature teaching. In total, 15 teachers from primary, secondary and upper secondary schools participated. Data included written teacher reflections and recorded focus group conversations. Reflections were collected at the start and end of the project. Focus group conversations were carried out once a month for three terms. The findings reveal that value was created through collaborative engagement of teachers and researchers, expanding teachers’ professional knowledge on challenges, practice-informed adaptation of teaching and collective learning and shared knowledge. The study emphasises value creation in educational AR through sustained teacher-researcher collaboration, mutual engagement, agency and knowledge co-production. It highlights the role of long-term partnerships and calls for future research to challenge consensus, to include both quantitative and qualitative measures of learning and knowledge, and to engage with scientific texts as well as systematically explore professional learning throughout.

Marie-Louise Rudolfsson’s series about Maria and the Blue Prince (1969–1979) confirms the male tradition of horsemanship – knowledge about and the handling of the horses are mainly the prerogative of male characters. Maria’s grandfather has a large farm with horses and employs the traditional male horse groom and stable manager Persson, whose knowledge when it comes to horses in unparallelled. Although sometimes grumpy among humans, he appears to be a vestige of the old ideal of the horse-whisperer. Hugo, an older boy at the riding school, is also an important male role model to Maria. However, these men do not adhere to the military discipline or the idea that horses need to be subdued with violence, as the male tradition sometimes dictates (Hedenborg 2013). Instead, they seem more connected to the norm of horse whisperers, with attention to the horses’ bodies and signals for communication (Donovan 2017; Haraway 2008; Roberts 2017). In addition, Maria’s non-confrontational, soft attitude towards horses is appreciated by them. She is depicted as a valued heir to their teachings, all the while bringing her own touch to the equation. For Maria, the stable offers an alternative to the traditional femininity that reigns outside the equestrian culture (cf. Asklund 2013), but the narratives seem out of synch with today’s gender roles. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the ways in which borders are upheld and transgressed, how the characters move through phases of liminality and how the notion of generations work according to gendered structures.

There are five national minorities in Sweden of which the indigenous Sámi is one. Historically, the Sámi peoples have been oppressed by the Swedish authorities. In this chapter, the representations of Sámi children in five children’s films are examined through close reading. The films span a period of almost 60 years: Sampo Lappelill (‘Sampo the Little Lapp Boy’ 1949), Bortom dag och natt (‘Beyond Day and Night’ 1988), Misa mi (‘Misa Mine’ 2003), Siv Sleeps Astray (2016), and Cloudboy (2017). Three themes emerge, namely nature and the nature child, animals and children in close connection, and growth through traditional knowledge and/or magic. The animals project the protagonists’ relationship with their mothers or trigger the protagonists to explore their fantasy or heritage. Puppies, bear cubs, and wolf cubs represent childhood, while growth includes being old enough to go to school, to learn from the older generations, to stand up for what is right and for oneself, or to find one’s own voice. The representations of Sámi children range from representations through the Swedish gaze, tinged with Romantic ideas, or ethnic prejudice, to contemporary, rather vague representations. The growing Sámi film industry provides opportunities for the Sámi to tell their own stories.

This article analyzes how the horse story setting problematizes the conception of the good mother and normative mothering, by elucidating how the gazes of the young main characters on their mothers function in relation to the notion of the good mother, how this influences the mothering and how the mothering characters challenge this notion. Mothering is seen here as caring practices, which can be performed by people other than mothers. The analysis of three horse story series by Pia Hagmar, the books on Klara (1999–2008), the books on Millan (2012–2014) and the books on Juli (2019–2021), shows that the series depict motherhood and mothering at the intersection between the conception of the good mother and the good horse person. The common denominator is nurturing traits that make personal needs take the back seat – for the traditional good mother to the benefit of her children, for the good horse person to the benefit of the horse. Hagmar normalizes the presence of several mothering characters in addition to their mothers around the horse girls. Furthermore, these characters, who function as mothering variations, contribute to the creation of a solid caring environment, reducing the demands on mothers who try to be everything to their children. Although the daughters’ views of their mothers are sometimes critical, Hagmar allows the mothers to be imperfect, partly incompetent, or simply women with their own agency,interests and needs outside of motherhood. In addition, a mother-daughter relationship built on a common interest in horses allows for a friendship with a common focus – the horse.