‘Where Did the Animals Go – Travelling Through Time With Lotta and Kasper’ wins the Tieto-Lauri prize for Children’s and YA nonfiction!

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Prestigious award for the praised children’s nonfiction about environmental and ecological crises

We are very excited to announce that just this morning it was revealed that ‘WHERE DID THE ANIMALS GO – Travelling Through Time With Lotta and Kasper’ written by Laura Ertimo and illustrated by Mari Ahokoivu won the Tieto-Lauri prize for the best Children’s and YA nonfiction title 2021! The original Finnish title is ’Aika matka! Lotta, Kasper ja luontokadon arvoitus’. The prestigious award is worth 15 000 €.

The jury states that: “Children today grow up among worldwide ecological crises. It presents a great challenge for nonfiction literature: how to tell children about the complex phenomena in an easily understandable way and give factually based hope that even the hardest crises can be solved. Ertimo and Ahokoivu have successfully taken on this challenge.” 

Download the materials from here

We are incredibly happy to see this stand-alone sequel to the best-selling WEIRD WEATHER continue its success after the Finlandia nomination last year!

Congrats to Laura Ertimo and Mari Ahokoivu!

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Into (orig.)

About author


Laura Ertimo

Laura Ertimo is a geographer and author. She has previously worked in publishing of geography-related non-fiction and maps, and now she writes full time, specializing in children’s non-fiction. A recurring theme in her work is the holistic worldview, the interaction between phenomena, people and nature.

In 2020, she received the prestigious Tietopöllö Award for her work as a Non-Fiction writer. Her children's title WHERE DID THE ANIMALS GO, illustrated by Mari Ahokoivu, was nominated for the 2021 Finlandia Award and has also won the Tieto-Lauri award!

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About author


Mari Ahokoivu

Mari Ahokoivu is a Finnish illustrator and a comics artist. She’s been drawing professionally for over 10 years, mainly drawing graphic novels and comics for children, including Sanni & Joonas and Lola Olifante. Ahokoivu loves everything cute and scary. She lives and works in Copenhagen. 

Mari Ahokoivu won the Puupäähattu Comic Book Award 2023, and together with Laura Ertimo, they won the Tieto-Lauri Award 2022 and were nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2021 for WHERE DID THE ANIMALS GO?!

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