”I got a new teddybear. I got a new country”: Depictions of Escape from War in Swedish Picturebooks, 2014–2016

This article analyzes 17 picturebooks depicting escape from war, all of which were published in Sweden between 2014 and 2016. Much like children’s books about Finnish child refugees of the Second World War, these picturebooks seldom problematize the actual experience of escaping war and arriving in a new country. My analysis shows how the authors and picture-book illustrators of these works generally choose to depict escape from war as a form of travel, or adventure story with a happy ending, rather than focusing on escape as a trauma. Overall, the works adhere to an older tradition, demonstrating a conservative view of the home and nuclear family. The authors’ and illustrators’ strategy to make such an escape comprehensible to younger children is thus to focus on stability and traditional values. However, as this article shows, this traditional framework does not necessarily make the picturebooks’ characters any less mobile than the mobile child subjects of international children’s and youth literature. According to recent scholarship, such literature challenges previous patterns by foregrounding homelessness and the formation of affiliations through choice, rather than filial ties.