Loukko by 
We are excited to announce that Maria Vilja and her book THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL DAY OF THE SUMMER has been nominated for the Rudolf Koivu 2025 Award!
Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland gives out the award bi-annually for children and YA titles’ illustrations. The main prize is worth 15,000 €. The nominees were announced 21st of October, and at the same time an exhibition of the nominee titles was opened.
139 books were sent to be reviewed by the jury, who selected 10 nominees. The winners will be announced on November 11th.
Congratulations Maria Vilja!
DOWNLOAD MATERIALS FOR THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL DAY OF THE SUMMER HERE
A life-affirming picture book about a summer day out including both laughter and tears, love and arguing, sunshine and thunder clouds.
Maria Vilja skillfully depicts the life of a family with children with all its emotions.
The sun and expectations are high when Eila and Aarno finally have a chance to go on a trek outdoors. Huffing and puffing, Mother is packing – something will definitely get forgotten. Then they run to catch the bus – and make it in just the nick of time! But when Aarno starts acting out and the camera gets broken, Mother loses her temper. Eila feels as if the sun has gone out at the very same moment.
Maria Vilja writes and draws about emotions and family relationships in a beautiful, sensitive way. A summer’s day includes both joy and tears, love and arguing, sunshine and thunderclouds. The message of the book is that everyone has a right to experience emotions, both children and adults. The hazy illustrations of the book are as if memories of a bygone summer.
THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL DAY OF THE SUMMER
Kesän ainoa kaunis päivä, WSOY 2024, 40 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)
Reading materials:
English edition, Finnish edition
