Short stories
Lapsia
Not translated into English
Teuvo Pakkala · 1895
Opening lines
Pikku Jaakolle oli tulossa hauska joulu. Hänellä oli äidille joululahja. Arvokas lahja, joka oli riemastuttava äidin.
Little Jaakko was going to have a merry Christmas. He had a Christmas present for his mother. A precious present, which was going to delight his mother.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Ten short stories, each centred on a child from the poor suburbs of Oulu. Jaakko hides from his sisters the Christmas present he has prepared for his mother; Maija challenges the boys to a race to win the mysterious title they are contending for; Vappu forgets on the way everything she is sent to fetch; Liisa would like to play with the boys; Mari is consumed by guilt; Elsa believes that the Christmas rice porridge is a sin.
Context
The collection appeared from Otava in 1895, a few years after the novel set in the same suburb, whose characters it takes up. Critics praised it, but charged its author with sentimentality and read it as an educational guide, even as children's tales. Pakkala had not intended it for children: he saw in it the child that the adult keeps within him to the grave. Several stories, including the one about the magic word, have been reprinted in school textbooks for more than a century. The Finnish Literature Society reissued it in 1999, together with the author's second collection about children.
Who it is for
Ten short stories, in Finnish, with the popular speech of Oulu; the text can be read freely on Project Gutenberg.
Prizes and reception
His stories about children are regarded as the most enduring part of his work, and the most significant in literary terms.