Welcome back to #WorldKidLit month at GLLI!

Marika Maijala, a Finnish picture book author and illustrator, has a freshly translated book – A Magician’s Flower – out with Elsewhere Editions. Her first picture book, Rosie Runs [see the GLLI review here], was selected for the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition, and in 2020, Maijala was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Here is a wonderful short video about her artist’s studio outside of Helsinki and how she thinks of herself as an “island artist”. In a post for Picturebook Makers, Maijala talks about her writing process and how she came to write and illustrate Rosie Runs after a bit of a creative slump.

A Magician’s Flower (2025), written and illustrated by Marika Maijala, translated from Finnish by Mia Spangenberg.

A Magician’s Flower is a gentle story with a small mystery at its heart. Willow and her pet chicken find an unknown plant in their greenhouse. They name the plant Raisin after a line from one of their friend Aspen’s poems. (With her dramatically oversized hat, Willow reminds me a bit of Pepito from Madeline and the Bad Hat!) Despite Willow’s care and attention, the seedling fails to grow. An attempt to help Raisin develop by introducing some fresh seaside air briefly goes awry, and Raisin disappears. The friends are reunited, though, and Raisin finally blossoms. The message is clear: Even the smallest and quietest amongst us will bloom with the right care and attention.

Maijala’s illustrations are bright and cheerful:

Even her monsters look a bit friendly:

In this spread, the orange pops out to make a grey page brighter:

The book is suitable for young readers, though some of the language (trilling, bombastic) may be challenging for preschoolers. Recommended for anyone who loves plants and would enjoy a gentle read about the potential inside us.

Click here to see Nanette McGuinness‘ review of Rosie Runs (an earlier book by Maijala) on GLLI.

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Kim Beeman is currently living in Rome. Before moving to Italy, Kim spent over a decade in Asia, working as a librarian at Shrewsbury International School in Bangkok and Tanglin Trust School in Singapore. She also co-founded the International School Librarians in Europe conference, and is a member of the advisory board for the Librarians Knowledge Sharing Workshop. Before working in school libraries, Kim worked as a cookbook librarian at The French Culinary Institute in New York City for many years, where she completed the professional culinary program and was certified as a sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers.  [LinkedIn]