Children's Books2015 · 48 pp · Age 3 - 9
Dads Everywhere
Kaia Linnea Dahle Nyhus
Picture book Pappaer overalt is a natural follow-up to Dahle Nyhus' debut book, Vil du høre en hemmelighet? In both books, Dahle Nyhus explores children's relationships with their parents, and this book is all about collecting dads and missing your very own, unique dad.
The dads the main character in this story is collecting are given names and collected in boxes. All the dads are a little bit different, but the most important thing about a dad is that he’s a dad. There’s more than enough to do, because there are more than enough dads to collect, because the whole world is full of dads. The main character doesn’t know his own dad and doesn’t know where he lives or who he is. But one of all the dads may be the main character’s own dad.
‘Kaia Dahle Nyhus is on her way to establishing her place among the elite of Norwegian picture book creators. She returns with a book that is highly original, thought-provoking, driven by probing curiosity and tender at heart.’HAMAR ARBEIDERBLAD‘Dahle Nyhus is the daughter of illustrator Svein Nyhus and author Gro Dahle, and has previously illustrated several of her mother’s books. Just like them, she creates children’s books that pack a punch – marvelling and poetic with difficult questions at their heart.’DAGBLADET‘The text in this picture book flows well with powerful rhythmic drive in the imaginative tangents. The illustrations are also unique. Kaia Dahle Nyhus has created her own means of expression using ingenuous, somewhat brutally formed figures inserted into a stylised landscape.’VÅRT LAND
‘Dahle Nyhus is first and foremost an original illustrator. Her use of colour is disciplined in red, green and black, where the use of details is scaled way back. All the same, there is a lot to discover in the pictures, where a group of strange, clumsy, ungainly and scary dads emerge in large format.’BARNEBOKKRITIKK.NO‘Kaia Dahle Nyhus is one of the most resilient young picture book creators just now. … In this spring’s picture book, which is her second on her own, she describes a boy who collects dads. There are of course dads everywhere, and most people have one, but not the narrator. … Although the dad collecting symbolises loss, it is also an example of a kind of categorisation of the world. Systematisation is part of a child’s development; children quickly learn to define themselves based on and in relation to the things and people around them. … it is visually that Kaia Dahle Nyhus really impresses. … Desire radiates from Kaia Dahle Nyhus’ pictures. Saturated with meaning, I might be tempted to say, the intensity pulls readers like me in and onwards as they keep reading.’NRK.NO
