■Reasons for the Presentation of the 10th International Brothers Grimm Award


Dr. Maria Nikolajeva has a distinguished researcher on comparative children's literature, being a professor at Department of Literature and History of Ideas, Stockholm University. She has written numerous penetrating theoretical works on children's literature in the areas of the history of children's literature, fantasy and picture books.

She contributed toward the development of IRSCL as a president from 1993 to 97, and is introducing the statements of international study of children's literature in the journal of ChLA. Furthermore, she is acting outside Nordic countries as a coordinator of Nordic Network for Children's Literature Research, an international network.

The main works she has written and edited are The Aesthetic Approach to Children's Literature: An Introduction (2005), The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature, 2002, How Picturebooks Work (2001), From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children's Literature (2000), Introduction to the Theory of Children's Literature (1996), Children's Literature Comes of Age (1996), (edited) Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature (1994), The Magic Code: The Use of Magical Patterns in Fantasy for Children (1988), in which she has always ventured to children's literature with new concepts. In addition, her research includes of Astrid Lindgren in Pippi Longstocking and Tove Jansson in a series of Moomintroll, in which the works of Lindgren and Jansson have been very popular among children in Japan.