Brown by Oyvind Torseter

"Brown is a warm and powerful story of friendship and courage, full of creativity and everyday magic."-From the jury statement, Nordic Council Children's and Young People's Literature Prize

Guided by his grandfather's ghost, two cans of paint, and a little help from his friends, Brown can do anything! Just as long as nobody's parents find out.

Brown is the fantastical first book in the award-winning My Alter Ego Is A Superhero series from Norway, Brown has been sold into twenty-seven languages and is illustrated throughout by the now-familiar and beloved Oyvind Torseter.

New in the neighborhood and hounded by fort-wrecking bullies, Rusty is looking glum. And to top it all off, his grandfather has just died. Rusty is stuck sorting out his emotions while the adults are busy sorting out the "practicalities" with the hospital. But one dark night, after watching a superhero movie on TV, Rusty gets an idea... Dressed in brown pants, a black-and-brown striped shirt, a brown mask and cape, and his mother's brown belt, the superhero BROWN is born! Guided by his grandfather's ghost, two cans of paint, and a little help from his friends, Brown can do anything! Just as long as nobody's parents find out.

Oyvind Torseter is a Norwegian artist and illustrator who has created eight books on his own and several with other authors. He's received numerous awards for his books, including a Bologna Ragazzi Award and the Norwegian Book Art Prize. In 2014, Oyvind was a finalist for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. Other titles with Enchanted Lion Books include: My Father's Arms Are a Boat, The Hole, Why Dogs Have Wet Noses, The Heartless Troll and others.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Wide-circulation of review copies to the trade, consumer media and blogs

Illustration Blog interviews and attention

Blurbs from top US illustrators

About the Author
Brown was Hakon Ovrea s' first book for children and received numerous awards, including the Norwegian Ministry of Culture's Literature Prize in 2013. The translation rights for Brown have been sold to 30 languages. He has also written several collections of poetry for adults.

Oyvind Torseter is a Norwegian artist and illustrator who has created eight books on his own and several with other authors. He's received numerous awards for his books, including a Bologna Ragazzi Award and the Norwegian Book Art Prize. In 2014, Oyvind was a finalist for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. Other titles with Enchanted Lion Books include: My Father's Arms Are a Boat, The Hole, Why Dogs Have Wet Noses, The Heartless Troll and others.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Kari Dickson grew up bilingually, as her mother is Norwegian and her grandparents could not speak English. She holds a B.A. in Scandinavian studies and an M.A. in translation.

Reviews

• Nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2017
• Winner of the German Luchs des Jahres (Best Children and YA Book) 2016
• Winner of the Dutch Zilveren Griffel (Silver Pen) 2015
  Selected as Top 10 Teacher's Choice by China Education Newspaper 2015
  Winner of the Nordic Council's Literary Prize for Children and Young Adults 2014

"Brown achieves a perfect balance between excitement and introspection, melancholy and humor ... Torseter's drawings, with the light washes of color that accompany them, deliver laughs and other emotions as needed. Dickson's translation is swift and assured. Sentences are direct, with nary an adverb to be found. Aside from the universality of its themes-death, bullies, friendship, and growing up-the book's power and charm arise as much because of what's left out as what's included. The presence of technology, for example, is distant; this could be a story from 60 years ago, and the book benefits from the absence with an increased focus on its characters. Brown is a wonderful book that deserves the many awards it's received, among them the Norwegian Ministry of Culture's Literature Prize. English-speaking audiences will eagerly await translations of the next two books in the series."-STARRED REVIEW, Peter Dabbene, Foreword Reviews

"A reader doesn't finish Brown. One simply closes the book at the end of the words and pictures and allows it a bit of heart space in which to live."-Connie Griffin, BookWorks

"The simple pen and ink illustrations add greatly to this fun story of good vs. evil." -STARRED REVIEW, Katrina Yurenka, Youth Services Book Review

"Small, fine-lined ink drawings with color highlights on nearly every page supply this tongue-in-cheek escapade with evocative vignettes depicting Rusty's flights of fancy, quizzical-looking parents and other grown-ups, and masked prowlers in homemade outfits." -Kirkus Reviews

"The jury has rarely agreed so strongly about a decision as this one ... [Ovreas] writes so well for kids that you would think he has never done anything else ... a warm and bittersweet super hero story, which is also an excellent book to read together for kids and adults"-From the jury statement, Trollkrittet Prize (Norwegian Children's and YA Book Writers' debut prize)

• "The book has both suspense, good dialogue, as well as hints of magic. Rusty's conversations with his dead grandfather are lovely, and all his characters have bucket-loads of charm ... Bursting with attitude and humor, the pictures are as expressive as they are simple ... recommended for anyone. The book is a highly charming tale of growing up, superheroes and the struggle for survival."-Dagbladet
• "In this enormously charming book we meet three little superheroes, each equipped with a bucket of paint ... Oyvind Torseter's beautiful drawings show us what it's like to feel small and out of place in a big world. They also evoke the warmth of the friendship between the children ... Warmly recommended!"-Aftenposten

Awards
Winner of German Luchs des Jahres (Best Children and YA Book) 2016 (Germany) and Dutch Zilveren Griffel (Silver Pen) 2015 (Netherlands) and Nordic Council Children and Young People's Literature Prize 2014 (Norway) and Trollkrittet Prize (Norwegian Children's/YA book Writers' debut prize) 2013 and Ministry of Culture's Literature Prize (Best Children's and Young Adults Book) 2013 and Mildred L. Batchelder Award 2020 (United States). Nominated for Brage Prize for Children and Young Adults 2013 and Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2017 (Germany).



Book Information
ISBN 9781592702121
Author Oyvind Torseter
Format Hardback
Page Count 136
Imprint Enchanted Lion Books
Publisher Enchanted Lion Books
Series My Alter Ego Is A Superhero