Your Turn, Adrian

Helena Öberg & Kristin Lidström

Almost every day 10-years-old Adrian goes to school with an anxiety lump in his stomach. There he feels alone and different. In the classroom, when the teacher asks Adrian to read aloud in front of the other kids, he feels as if the time stops. To cope Adrian dreams himself far away. In his imagination, he performs at the circus and can handle incredible acrobatic stunts. The public applauds!
But it is only when Adrian meets the gigantic wolfhound Heidi that everything begins to change for real. She just appears in front of Adrian one day, and from then on follows him like a shadow on the way home after yet another difficult day at school.

Your turn, Adrian is a strong 64-page graphic novel about vulnerability, elusive text lines and expectations that are difficult to meet. But it is also the depiction of a sincere friendship and the imagination’s power to transform.

Read about the making of Your Turn, Adrian on the Picturebook Makers’ blog

Press voices

“A wonderful book! An explosion of color and form, illustration and text. It could have won the August Prize and I would have been so happy!” Gomorron, SVT

“In Kristin Lidström’s and Helena Öberg’s multilayered graphic novel color plays a decisive role. The transition from black and white pages to spreads in full color reflects Adrian’s feelings and emphasizes the power of imagination. The superb wordless storytelling makes the book accessible for all readers” From the August Prize Jury’s motivation

“Helena Öberg and Kristin Lidström August-nominated picture book Your Turn, Adrian effectively and grippingly portrays the stigma and the exclusion that affects so many children that don’t keep up with the class. Adrian is dyslexic and bullied. His lonely life is playful and colorful and at the same time pencil-black hard. The artwork is congenial to the storytelling.” Dagens Nyheter

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