Slovak language deal for STELLA!

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Our most boisterous canine character is traveling to Slovakia! We’re pleased to announce that Slovak language rights for STELLA have been acquired by Arkus in a deal closed by Anna Kappauf at Ahlback Agency.

STELLA is an exciting collaboration for our littlest readers between comedian Ted Forsström and Aardman Animations director Åsa Lucander, and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize in 2023. Playful rhymes and interactive storytelling combine to create a cozy picture book kids can read night after night, over and over again.

Praise from Maria Lassén-Seger at Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper (5 star review):

“Children’s books about bedtime are a classic theme, but Ted Forsström and Åsa Lucander create something new by presenting STELLA from the dog’s perspective. […] Ted Forsström and Åsa Lucander create a nice variation of the durable theme by letting the chaos-at-bedtime-story be about something different than the expected parent-child fight. In STELLA (2023), it is in fact the dog Stella who creates troubles at bedtime.”

We have the full PDF for STELLA in both English and Swedish available.

Click here to download reading materials!

Rights Sold:

FINLAND, SWEDEN: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish); FINLAND: Etana Editions (Finnish); DENMARK: Gads Forlag; ESTONIA: Tammerraamat; GERMANY: Mixtvision; HUNGARY: Cerkabella; NORTH MACEDONIA: Ars Lamina; POLAND: Widnokrag; SLOVAKIA: Arkus

About author


Åsa Lucander

Åsa Lucander is a director and designer, working in illustration and animation both in the UK as well as Scandinavia.

Originally from Finland, she moved to London in 2001 where she was introduced to animation while studying illustration. After graduating she joined the animation studio 12foot6 where she stayed until 2014.

In 2015 she joined Aardman Animations in Bristol, where she is now based.

With multi-faceted strengths in storytelling, design and animation she loves exploring various creative styles, be it in 2d, stop motion or CGI. Åsa has a passion for hand rendered drawings and explores many different textures and mediums in all areas of her work. She loves mixing humour with melancholy and thrills in bringing characters of every shape and form to life with compelling scripts and inventive visions. She nimbly blends music, authentic dialogue, film segments, hand drawn characters and dolls in innovative ways.

Åsa has directed multiple shorts, including her award-winning film Lost Property, as well as many heart-warming commercial films for clients including Blue Peter, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Project Every- one and Childline, and a VR documentary film for BBC. Most recently she directed the music video for Coldplay’s track Daddy that has won numerous awards.

The Finlandia-nominated Stella (2023) was the first picture book by Åsa Lucander, who, in addition to being a director and illustrator at Aardman Animations, has also animated music videos for artists such as Coldplay. She created the book together with Ted Forsström. In spring 2025 her and Ted's second collaboration, Stiven, was published.

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About author


Ted Forsström

Ted Forsström is a Finnish-Swedish media personality, author, and comedian based in Ostrobothnia. He has worked as an actor, radio host, and screenwriter, and is widely known as one half of the popular duo Ted & Kaj. Together with Kaj Korkea-aho, he co-wrote the Finlandia Junior-nominated YA trilogy ZOO! and currently co-hosts Ted & Kaj, the most popular Swedish-language podcast in Finland.

Forsström also creates children’s content for Svenska Yle. In 2023, he published the Finlandia-nominated children’s book Stella together with illustrator Åsa Lucander. In spring 2025, the follow-up Stiven was published.

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