The Pearl

Klara Bartilsson

Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, a small pearl peeks out of its shell. She’s been resting for a whole month, dreaming and growing in the mussel’s warm embrace. Now she can’t wait to stretch her legs in the deep-sea night. But it’s dark and easy to get lost in the endless forest of seaweed. Luckily, someone is looking for her in the dark, someone who’s come from afar and makes the coral reefs shimmer in the deep.
A magical origin story of a pearl’s transformation into the moon.

Klara Bartilsson is an illustrator, visual artist, and pattern designer educated at HDK in Gothenburg. The picture book Mom Is in Trouble (2023), written by Daniel Sjölin, was awarded the Spårhunden prize for the year’s best children’s and young adult crime fiction. Klara Bartilsson’s first solo picture book, The Pine Needle Child, was nominated for the August Prize in 2024.

Books by Klara Bartilsson