A Jungle Tale

Jenny Bergman & Lotta Geffenblad

The ground shakes when the animals come running – what’s happened? The tiger, the gorilla, the skunk, the elephants, the snakes, the chimpanzees – they’re so many! And finally we understand what they are saying. I ask them again if they’ve seen a just nice enough, just chubby enough dad. But the animals shake their heads regrettably. ”We haven’t seen any dad,” says the tiger. “Unfortunately no,” the elephant trumpets. “A dad like that I would have remembered,” assures the crocodile.

One day dad is missing. Over the mom and the small child a jungle grows. Mom is so tired she needs to rest, the child wants to scream break yell. The worst is the longing, for a dad who no longer exists. But in the jungle, they find help: from the tiger, gorilla, elephant and chimpanzees. One day when the mom and child wake up, they feel something has happened. They’ve become others now, beings who are speckled, sometimes striped, and in many colors.

Jenny Bergman is a writer, TV and radio producer, and documentary film maker. A Jungle Tale is inspired by her own experience of losing her husband.

Lotta Geffenblad is a Swedish illustrator, picture book maker and animator, educated at Beckmans School of Design in Stockholm. She has illustrated and written many children’s books. She has also directed and animated a number of animated films and series, often in collaboration with other animators and visual artists, for which she has received several awards. She lectures regularly at animation and illustration schools.

Awards

Nominated for the August Prize 2024

“A missing father turns the safe home into a wild jungle to get lost in. Jenny Bergman’s text is as serious as it is subtly humorous, and Lotta Geffenblad’s color explosions for illustrations roar and worry every night. Together, they excel in picture book art and let seamless text and image move the reader. En djungelsaga (A Jungle Tale) is a reminder that all is well in the end, even when nothing else is the same.” The August Prize jury