Billie and Bean at the Beach

Billie and Bean at the Beach

Julia Hansson

Original Title
Billie, Korven och havet
Published
Natur & Kultur, Stockholm, 2020
Genre
Picture books
Pages
32
Rights Sold
English (NA)
French
Spanish
Catalan
Danish
Korean
Tags
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Billie and Bean at the Beach

Julia Hansson

Billie, her mum and their dog Bean are at the seaside. Bean loves everything about it: jumping in the water, rolling in the sand, chewing on seaweed. Billie not so much. And the kids on the beach are so loud! When Billie finally gets into the water with her diving mask, a world of silence and wonder opens up in front of her eyes.

Julia Hansson is a Swedish illustrator. She was educated in Stockholm and Tokyo. Billie, Korven och havet is her debut.

Other books in the series:

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Press voices


"Julia Hansson’s debut is a subtle, pastel coloured and summery book that contains within it a kind of restrained energy and inherent humour. Billie & Bean at the Beach is a light and adorable story to make you happy and warm inside. I look forward to discovering more of Julia Hansson’s work." New Swedish Books

“Summer-warm picture book about life on the beach as a story of self-discovery: staying on one’s towel, worried about all the unknown, and then daring to go down to the sea and discover a whole new world.” Dagens Nyheter

“The book conveys the feeling that there is a twinkling beauty in the hidden, a feeling that the strong design captures.” Ystads Allehanda

“A day at the beach turns into a deep dive not only into the sea but also in a child’s inner life, where a painful adversity is turned into love for nature.” TTELA
Awards
Nominated for the August Prize 2020

The jury's motivation:
A sun-kissed day at the beach has rarely been caught as in Billie & Bean at the Beach. Julia Hansson’s delightful picture book debut conveys beach-feeling and warmth through an incomparable lighting that provides physical recognition. The child’s will and reluctance as well as the sun’s rays are masterly and subtly drawn. The glow of the afternoon sun evokes the beach life so that the grains of sand, the parasol shade and the roughness of the towel are felt on the skin of both the adult reader as well as the child who, like Billie, doesn’t always want to jump into the water.