Vestly, Anne-Cath 1920-

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Anne-Cath Vestly
1920-

INTRODUCTION
PRINCIPAL WORKS
TITLE COMMENTARY
FURTHER READING

(Full name Anne-Catharina Vestly) Norwegian author of picture books.

The following entry presents an overview of Vestly's career through 1986.

INTRODUCTION

A popular and honored artist in her native Norway, Vestly's picture books have been translated and published in a host of European countries as well as the former Soviet Union. Best known in English-speaking countries for the "Eight Children" and "Aurora" series, Vestly has been praised for her warm humor, believable characters, and original treatment of everyday themes. Her books are admired for the manner in which they show children facing the realities and challenges of everyday life with cheerfulness and aplomb, even when they are somewhat confused by the situation. "One would have had to search fairly hard in the children's fiction of even a decade ago to find any acknowledgement of the fact that young families often have these problems, and that children are acutely aware of and perceptive about them," commented a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Vestly was born in Rena, Norway, on February 15, 1920, the daughter of Aagot and Mentz Schulerud. She studied acting at Studioteatret in Oslo and worked as an actress for five years. Vestly eventually decided that she would rather write and began to compose books for children. Her "Eight Children" and "Aurora" series became wildly popular in her home country and abroad. In 1977 a film adaptation of the "Eight Children" series was released—titled Mormor og de åtte ungene i byen—with Vestly herself playing the role of the grandmother.

MAJOR WORKS

The "Eight Children" series of picture books revolve around a large family that is poor but exuberantly cheerful, following them through a variety of humorous domestic episodes. In a review of the first work in the series, Åtte små, to store og en lastebil (1957; Eight Children and a Truck), the critic for the Times Literary Supplement called the book "very funny and touching … a perpetual gallop of entertainment." Subsequent titles include Mormor og de åtte ungene i skogen (1958; Eight Children Move House), Marte og mormor og mormor og Morten (1959; Eight Children in Winter), En liten takk fra Anton (1960; Eight Children and Rosie), and Mormors promenade (1961; Eight Children and a Bulldozer). Reviewing Eight Children in Winter for the Times Literary Supplement, Julia Briggs wrote, "[t]he book has a warm appreciation of the fun of family life which makes it most attractive. The episodes … convey a sense of security and well-being which will make them favorite bedtime reading." The "Aurora" collection is Vestly's second series to be translated into English. Aurora's mother works as lawyer to support the family while her father, who is a graduate student, takes care of the house and children. When the family moves to a new home, they find that the neighbors disapprove of their family dynamics, and Aurora is forced to handle confusing and tricky situations. The "Aurora" books, written in the 1960s, encompass a child's study of contemporary social attitudes at a time when the idea of a "househusband" was still very new. The first book, Aurora i blokk Z (1966; Hello, Aurora), received favorable reviews from several sources. The critic for Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Aurora's daily adventures … have a comfy universality that make the lesson a friendly one." "Vestly's portrayals largely avoid pointed messages, while her depiction of everyday details emanates a warmth that middle grade readers should find appealing," commented the critic for Booklist, and the critic for Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books declared that the book "is written in a smooth, casually deft, and lightly humorous style [and] has good characterization and warm family relationships." Other titles include Aurora og den vesle blå bilen (1969; Aurora and the Little Blue Car), Aurora og Sokrates (1969; Aurora and Socrates), and Aurora i Holland (1970; Aurora in Holland).

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Vestly's work has been extremely popular in her native Norway where she has published vastly more titles than those few that have been translated for publication in English. Those works which have received English translations have been welcomed by critics for Vestly's warm-hearted, funny, and entertaining characterizations. In her review of Aurora and Socrates, Jane Hollowood called the book "a humorous and reassuring story about family life seen through the eyes of a small girl." Hollowood further noted that, "[g]ood observation and a willingness to write about everyday life as it really is, make it typical of Scandinavian children's fiction today." Virginia Haviland has found Vestly's books to be additionally appealing because of the author's understanding of a child's world: "With perceptive characterization, the writing intimately conveys childish feelings about small and necessary details of family life and playing with friends."

AWARDS

Vestly has received awards from the Norwegian Ministry of Education for many of her books: Ole Aleksander får skjorte (1955; Ole Alexander Has a Shirt), Eight Children and a Truck, and Eight Children Move House. For her body of work, Vestly has been honored with the Peer Gynt Prize in 1980, the Norwegian Cultural Department Prize in 1982, the Teskjekjerring Honour Prize in 1986, the Sofus Media Prize in 1987, the Save the Children-Rainbow Prize in 1989, the Oslo Culture Prize in 1990, the Paul Robeson Prize from the Anti-Racist Center in 1990, and the Spelemann Prize in 1992. Among many other Norwegian prizes and awards, Vestly has been named a Knight of Honour by the Artists' Association in 1991 and a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1992.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

Ole Aleksander får skjorte [Ole Alexander Has a Shirt] (picture book) 1955

Åtte små, to store og en lastebil [Eight Children and a Truck] (picture book) 1957

Mormor og de åtte ungene i skogen [Eight Children Move House] (picture book) 1958

Marte og mormor og mormor og Morten [Eight Children in Winter] (picture book) 1959

En liten takk fra Anton [Eight Children and Rosie] (picture book) 1960

Mormors promenade [Eight Children and a Bulldozer] (picture book) 1961

Aurora i blokk Z [Hello, Aurora] (picture book) 1966; published in the United Kingdom as Hallo, Aurora! Aurora og den vesle blå bilen [Aurora and the Little Blue Car] (picture book) 1969

Aurora og Sokrates [Aurora and Socrates] (picture book) 1969

Aurora i Holland [Aurora in Holland] (picture book) 1970

Kaos og Bjørnar [Chaos and Bjørnar] (picture book) 1982

Lappeteppe fra en barndom (picture book) 1990

Høytlesningskalender år 2000 (picture book) 1999

Nesten et helt menneske (picture book) 2000

TITLE COMMENTARY

ÅTTE SMÅ, TO STORE OG EN LASTEBIL (1957; EIGHT CHILDREN AND A TRUCK)

Times Literary Supplement (review date 28 September 1973)

SOURCE: "It Could Happen to You." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3734 (28 September 1973): 1123.

Good solid poverty is the basis of Eight Children and a Truck : the make-do-and-mend attitude of the truck-driver's family, crammed into a two-roomed flat, is very funny and touching. Their handling of Granny's visit, a thief, a seaside holiday, a party, crossness, a lost dog, is all most ingenious providing a perpetual gallop of entertainment, and the chance ending of moving to a house in the country is not a whit undeserved.

MORMOR OG DE ÅTTE UNGENE I SKOGEN (1958; EIGHT CHILDREN MOVE HOUSE)

Times Literary Supplement (review date 5 July 1974)

SOURCE: "Read around the World." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3774 (5 July 1974): 722.

Eight Children Move House is translated from the Norwegian but the Norwegian setting is not emphasized and names have been anglicized. Indeed, in Patricia Crampton's translation, Grandma speaks with a Scottish accent. There is nothing to deter the insular child from enjoying the attractive sequence of small domestic episodes in the lives of the children who first appeared in Eight Children and a Truck. These books were written considerably earlier than the same writer's Aurora books, recently published by Longmans. They are less realistic but have the same pace and wit. John Dyke's illustrations are just right.

MARTE OG MORMOR OG MORMOR OG MORTEN (1959; EIGHT CHILDREN IN WINTER)

Junior Bookshelf (review date June 1976)

SOURCE: Review of Eight Children in Winter, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Junior Bookshelf 40 (June 1976): 158.

[Eight Children in Winter, t]he third book about this family of lively children whose names all begin with an 'M' is a homely tale of happy family life with parents and a resident 'Granny' and Stovepipe the dog. Christmas comes, the family take a trip to the mountains (so much part of Norwegian life), the children help the farmer to sort potatoes. There are simple pleasures and sorrows and plenty of fun.

While the reader does not know all the children intimately, Martha and Mark and, of course, Granny are full of character. The pleasant book could well join Astrid Lindgren's Bullerby Children on the shelf, although the illustrations do not present the children as attractively.

Julia Briggs (review date 16 July 1976)

SOURCE: Briggs, Julia. "Sequels, Series, and Settings." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3879 (16 July 1976): 879.

Anne-Cath Vestly's Eight Children in Winter, translated from the Norwegian and the third in a series, is a happy reminder of what a good storyteller can do with the simplest materials, how much can be made out of everyday events, and how a romantic setting can be presented both decoratively and unobtrusively. The eight children are not characterized in detail, apart from imaginative Martha and the toddler, Matt, but these two are so convincing that we take the rest on trust. Grandma is splendid, with highly individual feelings and responses, and the book has a warm appreciation of the fun of family life which makes it most attractive. The episodes are the right length, and convey a sense of security and well-being which will make them favourite bedtime reading.

EN LITEN TAKK FRA ANTON (1960; EIGHT CHILDREN AND ROSIE)

Pamela Cleaver (review date June 1977)

SOURCE: Cleaver, Pamela. "Books for the Under Tens." Books and Bookmen 22, no. 9 (June 1977): 64.

Eight Children and Rosie is the further adventures of a family about whom there are already three books. It is a slight but pleasant story in which the family does a kindness to the previous owners of their house, letting them use it for Christmas because their long lost son has returned from overseas. As a thank you present they are given a cow called Rosie which pleases the children and delights Grandma because she was a milkmaid when she was young. However, Rosie's arrival leads to difficulties. It is winter and too cold to build a byre so Rosie is installed in the seldom-used parlour. All the children have trouble at school because they smell of cow (!) and they daren't say the cow is in the house in case they are teased. However a committee of friends help to build a proper byre and eventually they can introduce Rosie to their friends. This book is better than it sounds because of the believable characterisation.

AURORA I BLOKK Z (1966; HELLO, AURORA)

Times Literary Supplement (review date 28 September 1973)

SOURCE: "It Could Happen to You." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3734 (28 September 1973): 1123.

In Hello, Aurora, though, the domestic humour is overlaid by an air of pathos which continues to the end. The rationality of mother working because she has the earning power while student father housekeeps and looks after baby and the young Aurora hardly makes headway against the pressure of conventional, genteel neighbours. The supermarket and the laundry with their perplexing machinery make amusing episodes but there are alarming undertones: Aurora has to mother her father unperceived and worry about their life, and significantly her only real friend is the latchkey boy, Knut, the moral scales being weighted against two unpleasant little girl friends. In deliberately making every woman's hand against Aurora's family the author promotes a sense of persecution, but nevertheless this is an interesting picture of social attitudes.

Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 December 1974)

SOURCE: Review of Hello, Aurora, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Kirkus Reviews 42, no. 23 (1 December 1974): 1253.

When Aurora's family [in Hello, Aurora ] moves into a high-rise apartment complex in Oslo, she becomes conscious for the first time of how unusual they are. Aurora's mother is a lawyer and her graduate-student father stays home to care for her and baby Socrates—a situation that raises eyebrows among the neighbors and leads to some embarrassing situations for Aurora, who must answer the nosy questions of ladies at Socrates' baby clinic and is puzzled by her new friends' scenario for playing "Mothers and Fathers." Obviously, this is a consciousness-raiser, and besides being liberated, Mother and Father are the very epitome of sweet reason. But Aurora's daily adventures—a bungled trip to the supermarket, confrontation with the scary boy from upstairs, a visit from Granny—have a comfy universality that make the lesson a friendly one.

Booklist (review date 1 January 1975)

SOURCE: Review of Hello, Aurora, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Booklist 71, no. 9 (1 January 1975): 463-64.

Several of the events that lend humor and substance to this relaxed story [Hello, Aurora ] may prove bewildering to American audiences unfamiliar with European, or specifically, Norwegian, modes of living. The story concerns Aurora, whose father, a doctoral candidate, tends to household matters while her mother, a lawyer, works. The family's move to a high rise occasions her father's first experiences with supermarket shopping and automatic washing machines, with each encounter played for a few chuckles. Aside from these episodes, the story's setting is unobtrusive, and Aurora's problems of adjusting to her new home and coping with neighbors' raised eyebrows at her home situation could be those of any American child. Vestly's portrayals largely avoid pointed messages, while her depiction of everyday details emanates a warmth that middle grade readers should find appealing.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (review date March 1975)

SOURCE: Review of Hello, Aurora, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 28, no. 7 (March 1975): 124.

As the book's jacket [for Hello, Aurora ] says, "Pioneers never have an easy time," and Aurora and her father suffer more than Mother because Mother is away at her law office. Father, who is a doctoral candidate, keeps house and takes care of Aurora and the new baby. Everybody had known this in their old home, but in the huge new apartment complex to which the family has just moved, several snooping ladies are horrified. And so are most of the children Aurora meets, although one boy who competently cooks and shops for himself and a working mother takes Aurora's situation for granted. The story, first published in Norway under the title Aurora i Blokk Z and adapted for American readers from the British translation, would be interesting from the feminist viewpoint alone, but it has much, much more to offer readers: it is written in a smooth, casually deft, and lightly humorous style, it has good characterization and warm family relationships, and it gives a sympathetic picture of the child who has just moved and is adjusting to other children and their life-styles. A nice book, too, for installment reading to children too young to read it independently.

Katherine Heylman (review date April 1975)

SOURCE: Heylman, Katherine. Review of Hello, Aurora, by Anne-Cath Vestly. School Library Journal 21, no. 8 (April 1975): 60.

[In Hello, Aurora, ] Aurora's father stays home to mind the new baby, cook, wash and study history. Mother goes out to earn the family living as a lawyer. Aurora doesn't mind this arrangement, but her new neighbors are less than kind about it, and her adjustment is sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, and always believable. Since Father is only a temporary househusband, his position is not entirely analogous to a housewife's; nevertheless, the author gets across many consciousness-raising points. A warm-hearted, entertaining glimpse into a new life style.

AURORA OG DEN VESLE BLÅ BILEN (1969; AURORA AND THE LITTLE BLUE CAR)

Times Literary Supplement (review date 29 March 1974)

SOURCE: "Bed-Time Companion." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3760 (29 March 1974): 332.

Leaving bears, there is more original fare in a book from Norway. The title and blurb of Aurora and the Little Blue Car are misleading. The car itself is a minor character. The real characters are Aurora, a most satisfactory child, her baby brother Socrates and her parents. This is a convincing and endearing family, in no need of transformation by bears or magic. They first appeared in Hallo, Aurora! and they are still living in a high-rise flat; Father is still working on his thesis and washing nappies and Mother is still going out to work. But this is no mere tract for the times. Warm, funny and refreshing, it is highly recommended.

AURORA OG SOKRATES (1969; AURORA AND SOCRATES)

Jane Hollowood (review date 4 April 1975)

SOURCE: Hollowood, Jane. "Entertaining Characters." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3813 (4 April 1975): 373.

Scandinavian writers seem to have a special flair for that most tricky sort of book, the very junior novel. Authors like Maria Gripe, Alf Prysen and Astrid Lindgren manage, even for seven and eight-yearolds, to provide stories that are subtle, honestly observed and true to life. The usual stereotypes so often dished out to this age group are not part of their tradition, they are at their best describing real people and everyday settings. And when they use fantasy it is invariably pinned on to a realistic backcloth….

Anne-Cath Vestly's most recent "Aurora" book,Aurora and Socrates certainly ought to be on CISSY's approved list. For in Aurora's family mother is the breadwinner and father stops at home to look after the children. When father has to take a week or two off domestic chores to sit for his degree (he is not just a pretty face) he has to find baby-sitters. The adventures of Aurora, baby brother Socrates and the various sitters that father digs up, form the basis of the plot.

Apart from the novelty of the switched parental roles, this is a humorous and reassuring story about family life seen through the eyes of a small girl. Good observation and a willingness to write about everyday life as it really is, makes it typical of Scandinavian children's fiction today.

Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1977)

SOURCE: Review of Aurora and Socrates, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Kirkus Reviews 45, no. 13 (1 July 1977): 670.

[Aurora and Socrates is a]nother turning point for the new-style family first met in Hello, Aurora (1974) when they moved into the tall apartment building between a big town (Oslo) and a forest. As mother works and daddy, a graduate student, doesn't, it seems natural to have him taking care of things at home; but then Daddy is called at the same time to "defend his thesis" and to lecture part-time at the University, and Aurora and her little brother Socrates have to adjust to a round of baby-sitters. There's a grandmother of eight, from the house in the forest, who is afraid of the elevator and the balcony but ends up proudly obtaining a driver's license. There is Uncle Brande who spends the day at Aurora's unaware of the extra little girl she has "rescued" from a family move and hidden in her closet. There is Daddy's mother and the friend who arrives with her by train and gets locked in a cattle car with Socrates, who must have a ride. And, coming and going through it all, there's still Daddy, who gives everyone something to celebrate when he passes his examination and returns home from a two-week absence. Amusing and likable.

Carolyn Johnson (review date October 1977)

SOURCE: Johnson, Carolyn. Review of Aurora and Socrates, by Anne-Cath Vestly. School Library Journal 24, no. 2 (October 1977): 119.

The smooth sailing of a Scandinavian family featuring a houseperson father, working on his dissertation in Greek history, and a lawyer mother, away long hours each day, hits some ripples when the two children,Aurora and Socrates, face their father's absence during the final stages of defending his thesis. Being cared for by neighbor Gran, who lives a more rural, secluded life, and by Uncle Brande teaches the youngsters to adapt to unfamiliar ways of doing everyday things. The issue of sex role reversal is well-handled without proselytizing and the book as a whole is an unsentimental look into a modern household in which the hassles over individual rights and priorities cause no permanent harm and solutions to problems emerge through trial and error rather than coming as a result of parental omniscience.

Virginia Haviland (review date February 1978)

SOURCE: Haviland, Virginia. Review of Aurora and Socrates, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Horn Book 54, no. 1 (February 1978): 50-1.

In a sequel to Hello, Aurora [Aurora and Socrates ] further episodes in the little girl's life show her father completing work for a doctorate while her mother works and Aurora and her baby brother Socrates coping with a variety of part-time baby-sitters. She manages well, helping elderly Gran adjust to their apartment-house elevator and becoming more self-reliant and ingenious, if often impatient, in dealing with her small brother. Father, their favorite babysitter, stays home from the university on his free days and promises to teach Aurora to play the piano. With perceptive characterization, the writing intimately conveys childish feelings about small and necessary details of family life and playing with friends. Despite the Scandinavian background, the reader feels a universality in the characters and their relationships. Ideal for reading aloud to younger children.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (review date March 1978)

SOURCE: Review of Aurora and Socrates, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 31, no. 7 (March 1978): 120.

In a sequel to Hello, Aurora, [Aurora and Socrates ] Vestly explores further the small problems of a child of a nuclear family in an urban setting. Aurora's mother is a lawyer; father, who has been taking care of the household, is a student who, in the course of the story, successfully defends his doctoral dissertation. His last weeks of intensive study make it necessary to bring in friends to look after Aurora and little Socrates, and there are many quasi-comic mishaps that spring from the adjustment of sitters and children. Vestly deals smoothly with such common problems as separation anxiety, peer jealousy, a friend's moving away, and a child's reaction to parental quarrels, incorporating all of them in an easy, anecdotal flow. The book, capably translated from the Norwegian, is also a good choice for reading aloud to younger children.

AURORA I HOLLAND (1970; AURORA IN HOLLAND)

David Rees (review date 2 April 1976)

SOURCE: Rees, David. "Over-Exposed." Times Literary Supplement, no. 3864 (2 April 1976): 377.

Aurora in Holland by Anne-Cath Vestly could not, by contrast, be more wholesome; simple stuff about a nice Norwegian family on a trip to Holland. There is some neat characterization and inventive humour. But the prose is flat and the author cannot resist useful information that sounds more like a lecture than real conversation. Gran says: "The kingdom of the Netherlands with eleven and a half million inhabitants is one of the smallest countries in Europe. A great part of the land is below sea level. In many places they have built dykes to keep out the sea." And so on. It is a book that may help the reluctant to read, but there is little in it to stretch the imaginative child.

Junior Bookshelf (review date June 1976)

SOURCE: Review of Aurora in Holland, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Junior Bookshelf 40 (June 1976): 157-58.

I am not sufficiently trendy to feel an instant rapport with a family where Mother goes out to work and Father keeps house, and where the children are named Aurora and Socrates. The Teges, however, live such a realistic life that prejudices are rapidly overcome.

Despite its title [Aurora in Holland ], the book begins before Mother is offered a job in The Hague, and many of the stories—presented as chapters—deal with the family's adventures as they follow her to Holland. The girl who rents their flat in Denmark turns out to be the fiance of a friend. Father insists on the children eating in the cabin as an economy whilst on the ferry to Denmark. Socrates loses his favourite doll and develops a new passion for a shaving brush. The gentle pace and original treatment of everyday themes make this an easy and enjoyable read. The small, cartoon style illustrations are full of life.

KAOS OG BJØRNAR (1982; CHAOS AND BJØRNAR)

Booklist (review date 1 April 1986)

SOURCE: Review of Chaos and Bjørnar, by Anne-Cath Vestly. Booklist 82, no. 15 (1 April 1986): 1150.

Anne-Cath Vestly, one of Norway's best known and prolific writers of children's books, has written a story about a little boy named Chaos [in Chaos and Bjørnar ]. His life, and the lives of his friends, typifies that of many children in Norway today. Their everyday experiences, as well as their fantasy life, are covered in an imaginative and readable way. The portrayal of one of the children who is confined to a wheelchair and must contend with his handicap is given an especially sensitive treatment. Also in the series is Kaosgutten: Vetleby og verder (The Chaos Boy in Vetleby and the World ) and Lilla Olaug og Lubben (Lillian Olaug and Lubben ).