Ivar’s Empty Room

Isabella Nilsson & Marika Maijala

Ivar’s task is to guard the empty room when mom and dad are at work. It’s a big room, with plenty of space for just about anything. That’s why so many people want to buy the empty room. Every day there are new prospective buyers. A baker wants to build a rollercoaster bakery, a mailman dreams of a love letter factory, a tourist guide wants to create a monster hotel, a sleep researcher wants a forest for sleeping in… The dreams are breathtaking, and each buyer offers more than the last. A thousand coins! A hundred thousand! A million! A billion! But one day, two buyers who are unlike the others show up…

A fantastical, clever picture book adventure written with great linguistic delight and subtle humor, and vibrant and whimsical illustrations.

Isabella Nilsson is a writer, translator, and essayist. Two of her books have been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Prize: the poetry collection Nonsensprinsessans dagbok (2019) and the essay collection En bok för ingen (2022). Ivar’s Empty Room is Isabella Nilsson’s first picture book.

Marika Maijala is an internationally recognized artist, author, and picture book maker based in Helsinki. She has received several prestigious awards and has been nominated for the ALMA Prize since 2017.

 

Other books by the illustrator