Marsu and the Art of Floating Like a Water Lily

Tuutikki Tolonen

Original title: Marsu ja lumpeena kellumisen taito

Author: Tuutikki Tolonen

Illustrator: Reetta Niemensivu

Published: 2025

Publisher: WSOY

Genre: Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Pages: 144

Reading material:

Finnish Edition, English chapter by chapter synopsis

From the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of Agnes and Monster Nanny comes a gently humorous children’s novel about Margo and her new family dynamics.

✓ Tuutikki Tolonen is an Arvid Lydecken award-winning author and her Monster Nanny series has been sold into 37 territories!
✓ Addresses the topic of two homes and separation from a child’s perspective in a realistic, comforting, and age-appropriate way.
✓ For the fans of Jacqueline Wilson.

Kids. Tomorrow we’re having a family meeting."

Nine-year-old Marigold, nicknamed Marsu, has her ordinary life turned upside down when her parents call a family meeting. Soon, instead of one home, they have two. Dad suddenly has a strange new beard, Mom buys a car and is learning to park and secretly cries, and her little brother, of course, doesn’t understand a thing – he’s just thrilled to have two sets of toys in two homes. The true nature of things becomes clear to the children only gradually.

Marsu, on the other hand, sees everything with her new hawk-like vision. Marsu spots her dad marching alongside with a man, she doesn’t recognize. But even Marsu’s sharp gaze softens when she realizes that while her parents may be separating from each other, they’re not separating from their children.

"Tuutikki Tolonen depicts a separation situation sensitively and precisely from the perspective of a primary school-aged girl. The new homes and daily routines are portrayed clearly, and although the novel is more of a reflective work than a fast-paced comedy, its perceptive observations about family life make adult readers chuckle. A ten-year-old praised the book as realistic and well-written."

– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

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Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

About author

Tuutikki Tolonen

Tuutikki Tolonen is the author of several acclaimed children’s books, plays and academic articles. She teaches creative writing and has worked as an editor and reporter at Vinski, a Finnish literary magazine for children. For Monster Nanny she received the Arvid Lydecken award.  Her inspiration for the Monster Nanny trilogy sparked during a family breakfast. “My son Leo, then six, said: ‘I heard on the radio yesterday that all moms have to go on vacation and monsters will take their places,” she says.

Her other bestselling series is the Agnes-series, of which the first book "Agnes and the Garden of Dreams" was in 2021 nominated for the Arvid Lydecken Award, received an honorable mention for the Runeberg Junior Award, and won the Luku Varkaus Award. Tolonen tells that the inspiration for Agnes comes for her interest for weird and inexpicable tales, ghost stories and mysteries: "I wanted to write a book my daughter Aili, then nine, would like to read - not too long, not too scary, but very curious."

Bibliography


2025, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Marsu and the Art of Floating Like a Water Lily


2024, Picture Books (0-3 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

The Secret Ones


2022, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Agnes and the Shadow in the Window


2021, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Agnes and the Mysterious Manor


2020, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Monster Message


2020, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Agnes and the Garden of Dreams


2016, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Monster Route


2015, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Tuutikki Tolonen

Monster Nanny