We Go To the Park

Sara Stridsberg & Beatrice Alemagna

We Go to the Park is a picture book for children and adults of all ages – about play, childhood, and the universal question of where we come from.

Some say that we come from stars, that we’re made of stardust,
that once we swirled into the world from nowhere. We don’t know.
So we go to the park.

Some pages are just illustrated, on others the text gets all the space for itself.

The park is a forest in the city. It is the land beyond.
In the park, anything can happen. Sometimes so much happens
that the whole world is overturned. Sometimes nothing happens at all.
It doesn’t matter. We just want to go there.

Playgrounds is a one-of-a-kind project that can be read on many levels. It is boldly designed – almost as big as an LP, with raw edges and a special binding.

Press voices

“With her latest work, the book Vi går till parken (We Go to the Park), published by the Swedish publisher Mirandobok and written by Sara Stridsberg, [Beatrice Alemagna] offers stunning proof of how art can represent a period of global crisis, such as the prolonged pandemic emergency, through a style that is both poetic and enlightening, without any trace of bombast.” —Award Statement, Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2022

“Her spare, lyrical words gave the pictures coherence, making of them something uncommonly lovely: part story, part poem, part prayer. Though spoken by children playing in the park, the collective pronoun seems to expand in widening circles as the vignettes unfurl until it becomes the voice of humanity, making the park a miniature of our restless search for meaning /…/” —Maria Popova, The Marginalian

“Contemplative teens on the cusp of independence and adult readers nostalgic for the mysteries and wonders of their early years will linger and ponder. Wondrously strange and wonderfully evocative.”—Kirkus, starred review

“This is a book that rewards careful attention and offers children considerable interpretive leeway. Park-goers -and picture book readers- know well the thrill of uncertainty and the joy of freedom. They will recognize We Go to the Park for what it is: a place to play.” —Mac Barnett, New York Times

“Here is a bit of a lesson to every adult about changing one’s perspective, about adults’ inability to simply be in the present. Every sentence in the book merits pondering awhile…with illustrations that swell and almost overflow with color.” —Sveriges Radio

“We Go to the Park appeals to everyone who has played and fantasized, plays and invents, or might be swept up by the imagination and the fantasy created through play…[a] full-fledged artistic adventure by Sara Stridsberg and Beatrice Alemagna.” —Dagens Nyheter

“The text is at once lyrical, philosophical, and precise; the illustrations arrestingly beautiful. A pure pleasure!” —Svenska Dagbladet

“The illustrations are painterly—rendered in earth tones, they are a little ominous, and tantalizingly magical. The text is spare, well-considered, and poetic…indeed, this is a book (and a park) in which the reader, too, wants to stay.” —Ystads Allehanda

“[A] successful interplay between poetic text and dreamlike illustrations…an artistic adventure for all ages. A gem among picture books! Overall rating: 5 [out of 5].” —Christina Wedenmark, BTJ-Häfte

“What a picture book!” White Ravens Catalogue 2022