Magnus, Mateusz i koń

by Hans Peterson, Teresa Chłapowska (Translator), Julita Karwowska-Wnuczak (Illustrator)

Erik is relieved to discover that old Mr. Lindberg and his cart-horse do have a home and a place to spend Christmas. (WorldCat.org)

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction

116 pages

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Hans Peterson was a Swedish writer, mainly of children's literature.

He received many prizes and recognition for his work, including:

The Svenska Dagbladet Prize for Literature 1955
The Nils Holgersson Plaque 1958 (for Magnus, Mattias och Mari)
German Prize for Children's Literature (Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis) 1959
The Astrid Lindgren Prize 1971
Wettergrens barnbokollon 1992

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1957 under the title of Magnus, Lindberg och hästen Mari, I really do wish that my Swedish language skills were adept enough to read Hans Peterson's original text so that I could check if my contents based issues with Erik and the Christmas Horse might primarily be with Cynthia Hyatt's translation (as it is stated in Erik and the Christmas Horse that Hyatt's text is an adaptation of what Peterson writes in Magnus, Lindberg och hästen Mari and I do thus wonder if Hyatt might have left out something that would make Erik and the Christmas Horse a bit more complete for me).

For yes indeed, Erik and the Christmas Horse would work much better for me if Mr. Lindberg would not just show young Erik (or Magnus in the original Swedish tale, but I do find it cheering that Cynthia Hyatt still uses a Scandinavian name for her main protagonist) that he and his horse Mari are in fact not homeless but to also have Erik then meet up with an actual homeless person in need of assistance, and I guess I do kind of wonder whether and maybe even hope that Hans Peterson might have the latter occur in Magnus, Lindberg och hästen Mari and that Hyatt has simply not included this in Erik and the Christmas Horse. But well, this is probably just wishful thinking on my part, and while I do like how Magnus (Erik) cares about Mr. Lindberg, his horse and their welfare and also receives a wooden horse from Mr. Lindberg as a Christmas present, sorry, but for me, a much better and more heartfelt Christmas message would be if Magnus, Lindberg och hästen Mari, if Erik and the Christmas Horse would end with Mr. Lindberg and his young friend spreading and sending Christmas cheer and warmth to someone or to a family who truly are homeless, destitute and cold (both physically and emotionally).

Now Ilon Wikland's accompanying illustrations for Erik and the Christmas Horse are absolutely delightful and show all kinds of rich and lush full colour visual details regarding Swedish winter and specific Christmas traditions (like for example St. Lucy's Day, although textually, not much at all is being provided with regard to this). And yes, Wikland's artwork for Erik and the Christmas Horse (for Magnus, Lindberg och hästen Mari) is indeed solidly five stars and also wonderfully nostalgically reminds me of how much I have always enjoyed Ilon Wikland as an illustrator and that I cannot really imagine Astrid Lindgren's oeuvre without Wikland's artwork and vice versa. However and as pointed out above, the presented text for Erik and the Christmas Horse, it does leave a bit for me to be desired and as such, while I have certainly enjoyed Cynthia Hyatt's translation of Hans Peterson's original Swedish text, I just do consider the combination of text and images for Erik and the Christmas Horse as not rating more than three stars.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A local delivery man is touched by a young boy's concern that he might be homeless, so he takes the youngster home to meet his wife. A sweet, touching story with beautiful illustrations by Ilon Wikland.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for the pictures by Wikland, which of course are lovely and deserve at least a star all of their own. The story is longish for tots, but in December in Sweden when the evenings are so long, I bet the children appreciated longer stories. Very sweet Christmas story about kindness.

[Oliwia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Całe dzieciństwo na to czekałam!!!!!!

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was translated from the Swedish, and something definitely got lost in translation ... like a point to the story.

So, Erik discovers the guy who he thought was homeless wasn't. And gets a toy for his concern. Well, bully for you, Erik Goody Two Shoes. The book would've been a lot better if Erik had really met a homeless person.

There's not much about the draft horse Mari, other than she looks sad. Why is she sad? We never find out.

The art is much better than this lack of story. The illustrations are full color paintings, rich and lush. There was mention of St. Lucy's Day, which North American kids probably never heard of. The art showed more about the celebration than the text. The artist, Ilon Wikland, certainly knew how to draw horses.