People and Bandits from Cardamom

Author Thorbjørn Egner
Illustrator Thorbjørn Egner
Translator Yu. P. Vronsky

Publisher The Black Sheep / Albus Corvus
Thorbjørn Egner Books Series
Age 3-6
ISBN 978‑5-906640‑10‑9
Pages 146
Hardcover
Size: 174 x 254 mm
Weight 0.510

In the cheerful town of Kardemum, everyone is kind and tries to live without bothering others. It is a peaceful and pleasant place, and very musical too — the people of Kardemum love to sing. The town is kept orderly by Officer Bastian. He too is good-natured and fair, and never punishes anyone without good reason. Three robbers live outside the town — Casper, Esper, and Jonathan. Although they have a tame pet lion, life is not easy for the robbers: they have to sneak into town to steal something tasty. But Officer Bastian may be kind, he knows his job, and the trio ends up in prison. Fortunately, the Kardemum prison is so comfortable and the food is so delicious that Casper, Esper, and Jonathan never even think about escaping, and by the end of their sentence they have been reformed and have even started working. Casper became a firefighter, Esper — the circus director, and Jonathan — a baker.

In short:

- A reissue of a book that has been known to Russian readers since the 1980s — for the first time with the author's illustrations.
- The book contains sheet music: all the songs can be learned.
- The Norwegians love Kardemum so much that they built a full-scale replica of it.
- The book shows what to do about children's mischief — but without lecturing and with humor.

For whom:
For children aged 5 and up.

Critical reviews:

In Thorbjørn Egner's books "there are no good or bad characters. Every character is described with constant love". "Pappamambuk"

I want my books and plays to entertain and captivate, but I hope that both adults and children will also find a deeper meaning behind the humorous story, for example, about Kardemum: that there are no obvious heroes or villains, and that we must admit that people are different from one another and try to understand each other. Thorbjørn Egner. www.norge.ru/thorbjoern_egner

About the author:

Thorbjørn Egner (1912–1990) was a renowned Norwegian writer and artist, author of radio plays, plays, and musicals. He received the Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards) three times, in 1975, 1977, and 1982. Egner was the first to translate Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories into Norwegian. He also created the town of Kardemum, which the Norwegians loved so much that they built a full-scale replica of it — with a tower, a tram, and a post office.