ALMA Laureate Baek Heena, Laura Santullo Part of "Reading without borders"
Läsning utan gränser was a collaboration between South Korea, Uruguay, and West Sweden. The project aimed to increase diversity in children’s literature and to initiate knowledge exchange about children’s learning and reading between the three countries. Through education and outreach, the initiative highlighted the importanc of reading aloud to children. Läsning utan gränser was project led by Författarcentrum Väst, a part of Gothenburg City of Literature.
Each country selected a children’s book to translate and distribute in the other two. The three books were Lyckokakan (The Fortune Cookie) by Kerstin Lundberg Hahn from Gothenburg, Strange Mother by Baek Heena from Seoul, and Un globo de Cantoya (the Floating Lantern) by Laura Santullo from Montevideo.
The two visiting authors attended the 2024 Gothenburg Book Fair and participated in several events.
“It was wonderful to welcome these two authors to Gothenburg City of Literature and to listen to their exchange of ideas and experiences, as well as follow their discussions with pupils and teachers at Bokskåpet, Världslitteraturhuset, and Schillerska Gymnasiet,” said Maria Bouroncle, project team leader at Författarcentrum Väst.
Speaking to a packed audience at the Gothenburg Book Fair’s Library Stage, Baek Heena emphasised the importance of children having fun while reading:
“The story always comes to me first – that’s the most important thing. After that, I create my figures. If I’m not having fun creating them, the children won’t find them very fun either.”
Laura Santullo, who also writes scripts and novels for adults, said that there really are no topics that should be avoided in children’s literature:
“Of course, I adapt my language, but otherwise, I don’t think it’s that different writing for children. One of my children’s books is about the military dictatorship in Uruguay during the 1970s. Writing about that was a way for me to share with my own children what I experienced as a child when my family was forced to flee to Mexico.”
”In South Korea, literature forms a central part of the curriculum, but in Uruguay the stories are often homogeneous. For example, it isn’t always easy for children to recognise themselves in the stereotypical depictions of families often found in children’s literature,” Maria Bouroncle said.
Kerstin Lundberg Hahn agreed that it is important for children to be able to see themselves and their experiences reflected in the books they read, but she also underlined the power of literature to open windows to other cultures:
” I still vividly remember a book I received as a 10-year-old in Umeå: Atlasfjärilen by Sonja Berg Pleijel. I’ve forgotten the plot, but I do recall the wonder of being transported in both time and space to Java during the Second World War.”
176 schools, 300 teachers and 9,250 children participated in the Project in Uruguay
In September, children’s authors and librarians from across West Sweden gathered to hear the authors’ talks and to connect with one another. The project team in Uruguay also participated online, as the City of Gothenburg’s major equality initiative – the City Where We Read to Our Children – has been implemented in four poor areas in eastern Uruguay. A grant of SEK 4 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), based in Washington, D.C., has enabled 176 schools, 300 teachers and 9,250 children from those areas to take part of the project.
*ALMA – the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, is a public literature award established in 2002 by the Swedish government. The Peter Pan prize was established in 2000 by IBBY Sweden and the Gothenburg Book Fair, and is awarded a translated work of children's fiction that enriches the world of Swedish Youth and Children's Literature. Laura Santullo was awarded the Peter Pan prize in 2026, for the book included in this project.