Children and Young Adults_NON-FICTION

Death is next up in Anna Fiske’s How-series. This is a topic that children are curious about, and which adults may find difficult to discuss. What actually happens with the body when you die? What’s a funeral? And why do we even have to die?

Anna Fiske has an incredibly unique form of communicating, and in How to Talk About Death she speaks to the children at their level and takes them seriously, while also managing to write a heart-warming, inclusive and at times even funny book about death. A perfect conversation starter for anyone who has questions about death, or who knows someone who’s passed away.

The How-series has been a phenomenal success both in Norway and abroad, and it has been translated into multiple languages.
Nominated for the 2023 Brage Prize

Did you know that Harald Fairhair had 24 sons and a baby polar bear? That Greenland got its name to trick people into moving there? Or that Trøndelag county actually had a dog as its chief at one point?

The Vikings have been the subject of hundreds of non-fiction books. Most of them have tiny text, virtually no pictures, and a whole lot of boring content. That’s why Martin Aas created the opposite: an easy-to-read book of facts that’s chock-full of illustrations and that only focuses on the coolest parts of the Viking Age. The Vikings explored vast regions of the world on the silk trade in Turkey and raids from Ireland to Ibiza. They were the first Europeans to visit America. Along the rivers in Eastern Europe, they created the Viking country of Gardarike, the foundation for the largest country in the world: Russia. There’s a reason why the Viking Age is called “Scandinavia’s contribution to world history.”

Through riveting comic strips, you get to meet powerful people like Harald Bluetooth, Gunnhild Mother of Kings, Olav Tryggvason, and Einar Thambarskelfir and take part in famous battles where these powerhouses fought to be king of “Nordveien” – the coast of what would someday become Norway.

A book for anyone who likes dinosaurs and is learning the alphabet!

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals never cease to fascinate us. In this book, this ever-current theme becomes an exciting entrance into learning the alphabet. Each letter is presented through a creature that once roamed the earth, along with beautiful illustrations and an easy-to-understand factual text. Children can explore the pages and discover on their own, while parents can create a pleasant reading-time. There is a lot to enjoy and a lot to learn – about the distant past and the letters of the alphabet.

The seven coolest dinosaurs collected in one book!
Read about Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Velociraptor – and of course Tyrannosaurus rex. Colourful, detailed and accurate – in this book you can see what the dinosaurs looked like both on the outside and inside.

Line Halsnes takes the youngest dinosaur experts very seriously and offers tonnes of cool dinosaur facts in a way that both satisfies the reader’s curiosity and teaches them something new.

Most boys have questions about puberty, the most dramatic transformation they’ll ever experience – yet it’s also the most normal thing in the world. The authors have answered thousands of them, in sex education classes and at the doctor’s office: When will I get a beard? Is my penis normal? How do I find happiness again after a heartbreak? How do people have sex? Brochmann and Dahl have written The Boy Book to give boys answers they can rely on, a guide to help them on their way to adulthood.

1. bestseller
   Nominated for the 2021 Norwegian Book Prize (The Brage Prize)
   Nominated for the best illustration for the year’s most beautiful books 2021 (the Norwegian Designer’s Guild’s Visual Prize)

Handbook for Young Antiracists by Tinashe Willamson spotlights the important topic of racism. Racism is a complicated topic for grown-ups to navigate, and many find it hard to talk to their children about it. For what can you say? Where do you begin?
This engaging, including and thorough book is written in the form of a diary, with tasks and conversations that the children can easily bring up at home or with their friends or classmates. The goal is to pass on the knowledge to the generation that is growing up now, to give them the feeling that they have the power to change the world. Together we are stronger, and by just acknowledging the problem we can do something about it.
This is the perfect book on the topic for children 9 years and up, and it works just as well at home as in a teaching situation.

The book is illustrated by Thea Jacobsen.

What do the atomic bomb, the pill and the like button have in common? That’s right, they all changed the world around them. Just like the lightbulb, the clay pot cooler, antibiotics, the dishwasher, autotune, protheses and the bulletproof material Kevlar.
Through these stories we are given insights into how inventions are made, how ideas come to be and how these inventions can affect our lives.

Ten Incredible Inventions is an entertaining and educational non-fiction book, illustrated throughout by the awarded Rune Markhus.

Did you know that the blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed? That it is even bigger than the biggest dinosaurs? And that long ago, the whales had four legs and lived on land? In The Blue Whale Andreas Tjernshaugen takes you into the sea. You can read about the life of the blue whale – what it eats, where it swims and how it breathes through a nose that is at the top of its head. You also get to know how the blue whales have become so big and how we humans almost (but fortunately only almost) exterminated all the blue whales in the world.
The book is illustrated by Line Renslebråten.
Nominated for the 2020 Brage Prize

Did you know that a slimy, brown worm can grow longer than a blue whale? Or that some fish communicate with farts? In The Animal Book of Records you will meet world champions in all kinds of categories, such as jumping, sleeping, farting and many, many fun facts.
This is an exciting, funny and beautifully illustrated book for all who wants to learn about the most incredible animals on earth.
Illustrated by Linnea Vestre.

Discover the world of insects! In this book, you will find stories about insects in many different countries: underwater in lakes and streams, in forests, in your garden and in your house. Insects and creepy-crawlies are cool, gross and sometimes bothersome, but most of all they’re super useful to us humans – and we wouldn’t last long without them.
This book was written by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson with illustrations by Nina Marie Andersen. Anne is an insectologist and also the author of Terra Insecta for adults, which has been nominated for the Brage Prize, translated into twenty four languages and become an international bestseller.

In The Girl Book doctors Nina Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl explain everything you need to know about puberty. Young girls should not have to resort to “googling” to find answers to the most important questions about their bodies. The book is a quality guide from the doctors behind the international success The Wonder Down Under, and who understand a young girl’s body inside and out. The book is illustrated by Magnhild Winsnes.
Winner of the 2019 Ministry of Culture’s Prize for best non-fiction book

People first started making plastic out of oil in a large amount in 1950. Paper and apple cores break up quickly in the sea, but plastic doesn’t. We’re producing more and more plastic every year. Researchers think that there are around 100 million tons of plastic floating around in the sea. This waste, which respects no national borders, is carried away by the ocean currents and distributed over the whole of the earth. In thirty years, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea if we carry on dumping at the same rate as we are now.
What can we do? The polluters are the ones who have responsibility for what they are dumping in the sea. The politicians must pass laws and regulations in their own countries and work with other countries to clean up the ocean. But we can also do a lot where we live. Researchers are working to find ways to collect up all the millions of tons that are floating out at sea. And it’s urgent!