Nils

by Ingri d'Aulaire, Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

Child's fiction/picture book.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Ingri d'Aulaire (1904-1980) was an American children's artist and illustrator, who worked in collaboration with her husband and fellow artist, Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Born Ingri Mortenson in Kongsburg, Norway, she studied art in Norway, Germany and France, and met Edgar Parin d'Aulaire when she was a student in Munich. They married in 1925, and immigrated to the USA shortly thereafter, settling in Brooklyn in 1929. After pursuing separate careers initially, the couple turned to illustrating children's books together, releasing their first collaborative effort, The Magic Rug, in 1931. They settled in Wilton, Connecticut in 1941, and lived there until their deaths in the 1980s. Awarded the 1940 Caldecott Medal for their picture-book biography of Abraham Lincoln, the d'Aulaires published other children's biographies, as well as some notable works on Greek and Norse mythology. (source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Nancy]

This is a book I enjoyed as a child. It was fun seeing one of my first attempts at a cursive signature in the front. The artwork is excellent and the basic story about finding a way to be yourself and dealing with teasing is still valid. Unfortunately in the 66 years since this books was written word meanings have changed. The first two sentences: "There was once a boy and his name was Nils. He was longlegged and gay and his schoolmates called him a regular fellow." The story revolves around boys calling him a sissy for his beautiful Norwegian stockings. Ultimately he learns to wear his fancy stockings under long pants on cold days, but not with shorts in the summer. Is this a lesson for today? Does "gay" now color the whole story? Would Nils now be encouraged to wear his fancy stockings openly and proudly?

[Stacie]

Young boy, whose parents immigrated to the United States, struggles to balance his Norwegian heritage with expectations of what it means to be American and to be a man in American culture. Themes of gender identity are prescient to contemporary discourse for a children’s book published in 1948.