Upptäcktsläsning i <em>Resor jag (aldrig) gjort, av Syborg Stenstump</em>, nedtecknade av Anna Höglund.

Abstract

Anna Höglund’s picturebook about Syborg Stenstump has long been a standard Swedish children’s picture book studied in comparative literature courses. My own experience as a teacher of such courses is that adult readers are almost always moved and upset by the portrayal of the journey made – perhaps – by Syborg. This may be attributable to the fact that in both form and content the book indirectly poses essential questions about the function and esthetics of children’s literature. While some readers spontaneously shout that they love Syborg, others are far more negative, even querying the suitability of the book as children’s literature. My students are also often parents who bear witness to the fact that their young, sometimes very young, children adore the book. The aim of this article was to explore the potential readings and interpretations of Höglund’s book. However, I have not discussed them in terms of children’s and adult’s levels, but rather as a description of a “journey of discovery through reading,” in which a number of guides – children, young people and adults – point out various implications and significations.