Hugo and Josephine

A mid-20th century children's book that was not the usual thing in it's day, and isn't the usual thing now because that often subsumes this in it's baseline. Aside lightly capturing the difficulties of being odd child out at the beginning of ones school days, and presenting us with the delightful Hugo, it illustrates that no matter how uniform the culture, children make every difference count big time.

So glad that I was reminded of this childhood favorite, and that the whole trilogy is on openlibrary. (Be warned, however, that it's somehow hard to find there; one difficulty is that there seem to be two entries for the author.) Hugo is just the most wonderful character, a bit like Dickon from another childhood favorite, [b:The Secret Garden|231815|The Secret Garden|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442934240l/231815._SX50_.jpg|3186437]. Josephine is just a bit like Ramona Quimby, [a:Beverly Cleary|403|Beverly Cleary|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616795777p2/403.jpg]'s most famous character.

But I had forgotten that my birthday is the name day for girls named Anna. I show more wonder if name days are still celebrated in Sweden.... show less

I read this book back in the early 1970's when we had first moved to Italy. I was 9 years old. The book made a great impression on me because of its themes of tolerance and the importance of friendship.
The little picture is from a movie based on the book.

25 - Ένα βιβλίο διδαχή για τα παιδιά , για το bulling , την ενσυναίσθηση , τη φιλία , το σεβασμό .
Δυο εξαίρετα , αλλά περιθωριοποιημένα από το κοινωνικό περίγυρο παιδιά , γιατί είναι απλά διαφορετικά , αντιμετωπίζουν τις δυσκολίες της ζωής τους βασιζόμενη στη φιλία τους και στη δασκάλα τους

"Josefin är sladdbarn i prästgården - ett ensamt barn som lever i sina fantasier och har svårt att förstå sig på de vuxna. Men hennes liv förändras den dag då hon träffar Hugo.

Hugo är också annorlunda, men han bryr sig inte om vad folk tänker om honom.

Josefin upptäcker skillnaden mellan dem. "Endera måste man vara på pricken lik andra. Eller också måste man vara helt olik dem - som Hugo. Man får aldrig bara vara nästan lika alla. Som Josefin."