To borrow from a popular internet meme, I once again want to remind you that picture books are for everyone. Luckily, Enchanted Lion Books understands the assignment. Specifically targeted at teen and adult readers, the company’s groundbreaking Unruly imprint has already brought us complex, award-winning written and visual narratives that both delight and discomfit.

Originally published in Sweden and new this summer from Unruly, We Go to the Park is an almost philosophical exploration of a commonplace childhood activity. Children all around the world go to their local park. They may run, swing on the swings, or climb trees and playground structures. They encounter unbeknownst to them children, or observe other park visitors such as “birdlike old ladies on benches.” They may even enjoy a treat such as ice cream cone and cotton candy. Their time at the park will eventually end, but it will engender a longing to return:

“Can we go the park, Mom?’ ‘Later.’ ‘How about now?’ ‘In a little while.’ ‘When will we go?’ ‘Later.’ ‘Okay. When’s later?'”

But as any child who longs to return to the park knows, later “can mean light-years from now.”

Swedish-born author Sara Stridsberg‘s prose poem feels so true to life. It is an authentically written account of childhood experience. Translated by B.J. Woodstein, the text’s conversational, probing tone is akin to speaking with a precocious child. I had to read the text more than once to really grasp it. The prose poem is written from a child’s vantage point, but as adults, we aren’t always privy to children’s inner worlds. Those of us who work with children know that they can be surprising in their observations and conclusions about the world around them. They are funny and clever and sometimes frustrating. In the same way that we as adults must be patient with children in order to have any hope of truly understanding them, We Go to the Park asks the reader to take its time, to reenter the world of childhood and what it is like to play at the park .

Illustrator Beatrice Alemagna is no stranger to this blog nor to Enchanted Lion Books. Her moody and otherworldly illustrations pair well with the liminal and philosophical text. Paired with the text, the illustrations emphasize the park is a kind of liminal space. As the unnamed narrator says, the park “is the land beyond.” Anything can happen there, even nothing at all.

While the intended audiences for We Go to the Park are teenagers and adults, there is nothing here that is inappropriate for children. It may nevertheless be inaccessible to younger readers. But public and school libraries would do well to include this evocative book in their collections.

Title:  We Go to the Park

Written by Sara Stridsberg

Illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna

Translated from Swedish by B.J. Woodstein

Enchanted Lion Books, 2024

Originally published as Vi går till parken, 2021, Mirando Bok

ISBN: 978-1-59270-407-1

You can purchase this book here.*

Find this book at a library.

Reviews: Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, New York Times

*Book purchases made via our affiliate link may earn GLLI a small commission at no cost to you.

Klem-Marí Cajigas has been with Nashville Public Library since 2012, after more than a decade of academic training in Religious Studies and Ministry. As the Family Literacy Coordinator for Bringing Books to Life!, Nashville Public Library’s award-winning early literacy outreach program, she delivers family literacy workshops to a diverse range of local communities. In recognition of her work, she was named a 2021 Library Journal “Mover and Shaker.” Born in Puerto Rico, Klem-Marí is bilingual, bicultural, and proudly Boricua.