Thursday, May 24, 2012

Fritt Fram, Fifi: Susan's Helping Hand

And Eva Löfgren came through once again with this scan of the cover of Susan's Helping Hand in Swedish. This is my favourite scene from the Susan stories, the runaway lawnmower at Cousin Barbara's farm. Eva informs me that a possible translation of the title is Susan at Large, which sounds just like a title that Jane Shaw herself might have used if she had continued the series. Eva, who contributed a chapter to Susan and Friends about the Swedish editions, often points out to me that the characters' clothes may look a bit strange to English-speaking Jane Shaw enthusiasts. Certainly, when the books were published in the 1950s, the characters would never have worn jeans, but at least the artist got the girls' hair colour right, although Bill has been given grey hair... Note that the name of the author has been included as a signpost, which Cousin Barbara would never have put in the middle of a field on her own farm! Flickböcker means Books for Girls. According to Eva in Susan and Friends, B. Wahlström is a well-known publisher of children's books in Sweden that has been publishing juvenile books since 1914.

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