Iben Akerlie - Selected Title Author

What is your book about?

Nils is starting at his eighth new school, and this time, he will be popular. His plan? Stretch the truth. But lies have consequences, and soon, his wild stories lead to the entire class having to sell toilet paper to pay for a shattered car window. Nils becomes the opposite of popular: he becomes a persona non grata.

For the first time ever, his mother isn’t the one who wants to move—Nils is. But this time, moving isn’t so easy because his mother has fallen in love. Nils enlists the second least popular kid in the class, Bruno, to set the moving plans in motion via different stunts aiming to break his mother’s heart. In return, Nils promises to help Bruno find love himself. Along the way, they also set out to take down the king of the class, Mads, by setting his hair (and very nearly the whole school auditorium) on fire.

One disaster follows another, yet Nils still isn’t any closer to moving. But maybe that’s okay—because along the way, he discovers something he never expected: true friendship.

What inspired you to write/illustrate this book?

I wanted to write about a boy with a lot of feelings but who doesn’t necessarily know how to express or deal with them. Instead of talking, he acts—often in ways that spiral out of control. The basis of this story is pretty “typical”; at its core, it’s about being seen and daring to be seen. This is a universal theme and one that connects with my previous books.

What’s different in Nils is the style, where I deliberately chose a faster, punchier approach. I took a cue from TikTok and YouTube, drawing inspiration from short episodes, abrupt turns, and quick shifts. I also wanted to make the reader laugh.

This shift in format felt like a natural response to the target audience, but also a challenge to myself as a writer. Still, the new approach was never meant to hinder my style. The result? The writing may seem less sentimental, but the story is just as emotional. Through this process, I surprised myself by daring to “say less” but still trusting that the character would display a full spectrum of emotions.

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