Victor Is Silly

Daniel Sjölin & Eva Lindström

There’s something fishy about that Victor. He comes and goes, and Mom chirps like a bird as soon as he shows up at home.

The children in Daniel Sjölin’s and Eva Lindström’s picture book suspect that their mom is in love with Victor. But they don’t want to share her with anyone. So they plan to get rid of Victor!

Step into a strong and delightfully quirky picture book drama that portrays the emotional awkwardness of having to get to know a new family member. With a cowboy hat on their head and a lasso in their hands, Eva Lindström lets the children take their revenge on mom’s new boyfriend. On a lime and oat-colored farmyard prairie, they tie him around a tree and gallop in triumph with their horses. They live out all their frustration. But what happens when it turns out that Victor’s birthday is on this very day? Can they have an ice cream cone anyway…?

Without sentimentality and with small meaningful details, a picture book drama is created; about strong, conflicting feelings of anger, jealousy, and genuine love. As is often the case, both patience and playfulness have an important role in meeting with others. And sometimes even a motley bunch of toy horses can be a helping hand.

Daniel Sjölin is a writer, critic, editor, and program host. He has written several picture books, including Morsan är haffad (Mom Is Busted), illustrated by Klara Bartilsson.

Eva Lindström is a cartoonist and filmmaker, but above all: one of Sweden’s most renowned children’s book authors and illustrators. She has received many awards and was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) in 2022.

Press voices 

”Daniel Sjölins text and Lindströms illustrations fits together like two puzzle pieces.” Dagens Nyheter

“This is a hugely loving book. Filled with humour and feelings Sjölin and Lindström portrays the process where a bonus parent slowly and surely lets themselves get bullied into the warmth and everyday life, where he in the end becomes desirable – at the end they tie him up so can’t disappear again.” Göteborgsposten

Selected for the White Raven 2024, with the motivation:

“The tone is set: The children are jealous of Victor, their mum’s new boyfriend. How can they possibly scare him away? Soon they get their chance, if not to get rid of him, then at least to contain him. They tie him to a tree. Victor doesn’t find this particularly amusing, but somehow he manages both to make the kids feel a little sorry for him as he is standing out there in the rain; and to make them stop thinking of him as such a terrible nuisance. Jealousy is a classic motif in children’s literature. In »Victor är silly«, it is consistently told from the children’s viewpoint in an original and humorous way. It is precisely because of this, that readers can observe how jealousy turns into empathy: Victor isn’t so stupid after all.”

Books by Daniel Sjölin