Tone E. Solheim - Selected Title Author

What is your book about?

Thirteen-year-old Vida has had a pretty lame summer. Her best friend, Siri, has just moved away, and now Vida has to start the ninth grade without her. Vida s-stutters a l-l-lot and has absolutely no self-confidence, and it doesn’t help that Aurora, one of the most popular girls in her class, likes picking on her just for fun. Her mom doesn’t understand anything, either, and Vida feels like no one sees her. But then Viktor starts in her class. Viktor is also different (he has CP), and through her friendship with him, Vida learns that it’s possible to both be different and accepted at the same time.

I’m V-Vida is a book about friendship and being an outsider, and about finding your own voice. Together with Vida and Viktor, the reader experiences how important it is to make room for everybody, and how little it really takes to make someone feel included – something I think everyone can be reminded of every once in a while.

What inspired you to write this book?

I saw a boy at a subway station in Oslo a few years ago. He was sitting on a bench with his friends and he had a skateboard in his lap. I could see he had CP, but what I noticed first was his amazing smile and how nice his group of friends seemed. That was when it hit me: I want to write about someone just like that! Once Viktor had first taken form in my manuscript, Vida wasn’t far behind. People with disabilities don’t often get a place in literature, and this book was my attempt to do something about that. I think that representation in books (especially YA) is incredibly important. We all deserve characters we can identify with and recognize a bit of ourselves in.

Read more

See full presentation of the book here

Read more about the author here

See all NORLA’s Selected Titles for the spring 2024 here