Historien om någon facts for kids
Cover art
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| Author | Åke Löfgren |
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| Illustrator |
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| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Genre | Children's literature, mystery |
| Published | 1951 |
| Publisher | Folket i Bild, Rabén & Sjögren |
| Pages | 26 |
Historien om någon (Swedish for "The Story About Someone") is a Swedish children's story written by Åke Löfgren and illustrated by Egon Møller-Nielsen. It was originally published by Folket i Bild in 1951, and has since been re-released by Rabén & Sjögren; a tactile edition for readers with impaired vision has also been produced by the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille, with tactile illustrations by Eva P. Eriksson and Marguerite Ahlbom.
A mystery picture book, Historien om någon sees the point-of-view character follow a red string of yarn through a Swedish 1950s house to find the identity of an unknown visitor; a conceit that originally came from Møller-Nielsen. The book is considered a classic children's story, and is still in print as of 2018. Although Møller-Nielsen did not follow Historien om någon with further children's books, others have followed in its tradition of picture book spaces as play areas. A musical theater adaptation by Boulevardteatern premiered in 2011 in Stockholm.
Synopsis
Historien om någon is a mystery picture book with an unseen point-of-view character serving as a stand-in for the reader, who searches for an unknown visitor in a home. In a hide-and-seek-like fashion, the reader follows the trail of a red string of yarn from the point-of-view character's grandma's knitting, which the visitor has brought with them.
Each page spread shows a new room in the house, and gives a clue to the identity of the visitor – including a tipped-over jug of milk, and a part where the string, seemingly impossible if the visitor were human, loops around a baluster in the staircase – before the point-of-view character follows the string to a cabinet, and, looking through its keyhole, finds that the visitor is the cat Nisse.
The book's narrator invites the reader into the home, and is used to make the reader-character an active part of the story, with phrasings directed to the reader indicating action on their part, such as "Let's open the door".
Images for kids
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The book's concept came from its illustrator Egon Møller-Nielsen.
 | Calvin Brent |
 | Walter T. Bailey |
 | Martha Cassell Thompson |
 | Alberta Jeannette Cassell |
