STIVEN Estonian rights sold!

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We are happy to announce that the Estonian rights for STIVEN by Ted Forsström & Åsa Lucander have been sold to Rahva Raamat! The deal was closed by Satu Sallantaus at Ahlbäck agency.

REQUEST MATERIALS FOR STIVEN HERE

Highly recommended for everyone, but especially families with young children, and particularly for those who share their lives with a cat – or perhaps, for those who are ruled by one.

The food is gone! Stiven roars. This is urgent! Come out!

Have you ever thought how frustrating life can be for a cat? When something as simple as getting fed turns into a daily battle? For Stiven, the logic is simple: an empty bowl must be filled immediately. How can an entire family have such a hard time understanding this?

The glutton Stiven is a stubborn drama queen, holding the whole family hostage with one mission: more food immediately! He’s a big personality, alternately majestic and pathetic, and neither mom, dad, the child, nor the baby escapes his constant demands for food and attention. This leads to comedic moments in the everyday life of a young family with a pet, brilliantly captured in Åsa Lucander’s lively illustrations.

Ted Forsström’s text is atmospheric and down-to-earth, with his characteristic playful rhymes occasionally shining through. It’s highly relatable for families with young children and especially for anyone who owns a cat—or is owned by one. The duo’s previous bedtime story, STELLA, was nominated for the Finlandia Prize.

STIVEN by Ted Forsström & Åsa Lucander
Stivens fat är utan mat, Förlaget 2025, 44 pp.

Rights sold:
FINLAND, SWEDEN: Förlaget (orig. Finland-Swedish), FINLAND: Teos (Finnish)
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat
GERMANY: dtv Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co.KG
HUNGARY: Cerkabella Könyvek
TURKEY: Doğan Kitap
USA: Spinning Wheel Stories
WORLD ARABIC: Logha

Reading materials:
English edition, Swedish PDF

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.

Photo credit: Karni Arieli

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About author


Ted Forsström

Ted Forsström is a well-known Finnish-Swedish comedian, radio personality and author. Together with Kaj Korkea-aho, he co-wrote the YA trilogy ZOO!, which was nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize. Forsström also co-hosts Ted & Kaj, the most popular Swedish-language podcast in Finland, with Korkea-aho.

In 2023, he co-wrote the Finlandia Junior-nominated children’s book Stella with illustrator Åsa Lucander. Their follow-up, Stiven, was awarded the Runeberg Junior Prize in 2026.  Stella has been translated into 10 languages, while Stiven has been translated into five. The Blue Flame is a LitRPG fantasy adventure for young adults.

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