Cara Knuutinen
Cara Knuutinen was born in Helsinki and lives in Degerö. She is a graduate of the College of Industrial Art, has been a teacher of art and now works full-time as an illustrator.
“It was always my dream to become an illustrator. I had my first jobs as an illustrator while I was still a student and also did illustration while I worked as senior-school art teacher at Kauklahti during 1992-94. In 1994 I gave birth to twins and after that worked full-time as a freelance illustrator. I mostly do water-colours, but I also enjoy drawing with pencil or red crayon. I have also drawn portraits of animals, mostly with pastels.
My hobbies are horses, riding and gardening. I love being out in the countryside. Besides animals and nature, fairytales are my favourite subject for illustrating. Illustrating textbooks for primary school children and producing picture-books are what I love best and never tire of doing.”
In addition to illustrating several course books for WSOY, Söderströms (eg the Reading Book series) and other publishers, Knuutinen has also illustrated nature books for children and picture-books (The Secret Valley, Schildts, 2007). She has also participated in exhibitions.
Written by Anna Gullischen | Illustrated by Cara Knuutinen
Saga Blossom Checks Out the Spring
Early in spring everything looks different from how it looks in summer. She kicks off her shoes, which hit the ground, thud-thud. It’s lovely to sit high up in the oak-tree and wiggle your toes on a warm spring day.
Saga has a good view over the garden, river, the shed and the little green gate. There goes Grandma with her baskets. She’s on her way to the sandy house. Putte stands there with his binoculars, watching birds.
“You’re sitting high up,” calls Putte to Saga. “Like in a bird-watching tower.”
Grandma’s neighbour Putte is a bird-watcher. He tells Saga about the spring birds. About the chaffinch, the starling, the songthrush, the whooping swan and the whitebacked woodpecker. But when Saga sees Grandma and Putte hugging behind the redcurrant bushes, the excitement about spring seeps out of her…
This is the third book about Saga Blossom, and, as in the previous ones, the reader is offered considerably more than a story. Besides Cara Knuutinen’s attractive illustrations there are recipes for nettle soup and nettle pancakes, together with a list of spring birds that the reader can check off.
Written by Anna Gullischen | Illustrated by Cara Knuutinen
Saga Blossom and the Snow Girl
Saga Blossom flops around in the snow all the way up the hill to the sand-coloured house. There she celebrates Christmas with Grandma. On the verandah stand the herbs in their pots, and although it will soon be Christmas, it smells of summer. In a corner of the garden she notices how a little flower has grown right through the snow. Saga bends down to look at the little thing. It’s a little girl. Her name is Hellebore, Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose.
This is the second book about Saga Blossom. Just as in the first one, the reader can learn a great deal – about gardens, Christmas flowers and how to care for them, making snow waffles – and enjoy a lovely story as well.
Written by Anna Gullischen | Illustrated by Cara Knuutinen
Saga Blossom
During the summers Saga Blossom lives in her grandmother’s sand-coloured house surrounded by a large garden. Her grandfather, who is now dead, was a gardener, and Saga and her grandmother now own and manage the garden. Her grandmother’s name is Simone, and she is French. She cultivates plants that are common in Mediterranean countries, and she calls Saga ma chérie and ma petite. One day when Grandma is taking her daily nap on the verandah, Saga meets a mysterious figure in the garden. It is the old branch man Pyrus Communis, who becomes Saga’s friend and gardening teacher. Saga Blossom is a book about a little girl and her grandmother, which at the same time contains a great deal of information about garden plants and gardening, a little French vocabulary and recipes for onion pie and pear jam. Cara-Maria Knuutinen’s beautiful illustrations are delightful and luxuriant, similar to Elsa Beskow’s.
Grandma Simone yawns. “I’ll go and have a rest on the verandah for a while, ma petite,” she says. Saga understands that it’s time for Grandma’s nap. But there’s one thing she needs to know first.
“Do you know anyone called Pyrus?” she asks.
“Oui, ma chérie! Pyrus – Grandpa’s old pear-tree which blew down the same autumn he died. Pyrus is the Latin name for pear.”
“I know,” says Saga. “Latin is a scientific language. Larkspur is Delphinium. Daisy is Bellis.” “Saga, ma petite,” Grandma exclaims. “Have you become a little gardener? And how fine you look in Grandpa’s hat!”
Also available: The Secret Valley, Schildts, 2007
Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency Oy Ltd.
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