Stella

An interactive and playful bedtime story for toddlers featuring a very loud dog with a big imagination!

✓ A new, exciting collaboration between comedian Ted Forsström and Aardman director Åsa Lucander

✓ Nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2023 and rights sold to 9 languages!

✓ Stella the dog’s thoughts mimic the lively imagination of toddlers

✓ Features comforting routine and interactive fun: Toddlers will love to join in the repeating tongue twister telling Stella to behave

A father tries to put his child to bed, but keeps getting interrupted by Stella the dog barking hysterically. Something unexpected always happens, and the reader is treated to Stella’s lively imagination: it may be a door opening or a car driving by, but Stella is strongly convinced it’s Grandma coming to give her food, or that squirrels have built a nest in the toaster.

Anyone who has ever tried to put a child to bed knows how cozy yet fragile the situation is. It requires the right amount of patience and determination. The right bedtime story can be the key to a successful, quiet night. Stella is a book you can read again and again, night after night.

Stella is full of warmth, playful rhymes and an unusual mix of familiar ordinariness with fantastic antics. Very familiar for anyone trying to combine cozy moments with a pet!

In the book, a storytime during a weekday evening derails when the family’s dog starts barking. The expressive illustrations and colour palette contribute nicely to the atmosphere of the story and the language is packed with inventive rhymes and details where imagination wins over everyday life. In the work, the cozy weekday evening is interrupted by chaos in a way that gives your laughing muscles a good workout. A guaranteed fun reading time in both Swedish and Finnish.
– Motivation of the Finlandia Prize jury