Der weiße Stein

by Gunnel Linde

Ein Kinderbuchklassiker über Freundschaft und Fantasie
Was kann an einem gewöhnlichen weißen Stein schon Besonderes sein? Ohne den weißen Stein, um den es hier geht, gäbe es diese Geschichte nicht. Ohne ihn hätten sich Fideli und der König der Gefahren, das heißt, eigentlich Fia und Hampus, womöglich nie kennen gelernt! Der Stein verleiht ihnen ungeahnten Mut: Hampus hätte es nie gewagt, die Kirchturmuhr in stockdunkler Nacht mit einem Gesicht zu verzieren, für den König der Gefahren dagegen war das ein Leichtes! Und Fia hätte unmöglich einen ganzen Tag lang schweigen können, Fideli sehr wohl. Doch leider gibt es da auch noch die Erwachsenen: die bösartige Tante Malin, die hinter dem Kirchturmgesicht ein Komplott vermutet, und den Amtsrichter, der unbedingt herausbekommen will, wer ihm das hartgekochte Ei ins Bett gelegt hat.

Genres: Childrens, Friendship, Classics, Sweden, Swedish Literature, Audiobook, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Gunnel Linde (born 14 October 1924 in Stockholm) is a Swedish writer who has written over forty children's books, among them Den vita stenen.

In 1971, she was one of the founders of BRIS ("Barnens rätt i samhället", in English Children's Rights in Society).

She has received the Swedish Nils Holgersson Plaque in 1965 (for the book Den vita stenen) and the Astrid Lindgren award in 1978.

Reviews

[Helena Ferry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kunde inte låta bli att ta denna i ett bokbytarskåp. Såg serien många gånger som liten men hade aldrig läst boken förrän nu. Nostalgi!

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fia is always being teased by other children, and Hampus is always getting into trouble. When the two meet, Hampus grabs Fia's prize treasure, a white stone. To get the stone back, Hampus orders Fia to take on a daring task. Fia accomplishes the task, and the stone is returned to her, but that's not the end---the challenges go on and on. The townspeople, including the families and friends of Fia and Hampus, are left confused as to just what is going on.

I enjoyed this little book so much!

[Amber Scaife · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two outsider children who live across the street from one another become friends and set contests for each other, the prize for which feats is the trading back and forth of a lovely white stone.
Meh, this one had potential, but didn't deliver like it could have. To be fair, it could be a problem of poor translation (the original is Swedish).

[Raúl · Rating 4 out of 5]

El recuerdo de la serie de televisión me ha hecho buscar y leer la novela en la que se basa, y de la cuál su autora fue la guionista. Una historia encantadora acerca de la amistad y la madurez, que se vio amplificada en la serie de televisión.

[Emma L.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gunnel has one of the sweetest voices I've ever heard and I enjoyed listening to this audio book so much!

I know the story by heart, since I absolutely adore the tv series. But it was still very interesting to hear the story from the author and the written word directly. It gave it another feeling, another step in the feel good-department in my brain.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two young people meet and become friends, exchanging a series of dares in order to win the privilege of holding on to a beautiful, smooth, pure white stone in this children's novel from Sweden. Fia and Hampus, who call themselves Fideli and Prince Perilous in their make-believe games, are each outsiders in their small village, Fia because the other children taunt her for being the piano teacher's daughter, and Hampus because he is a newcomer, the nephew of a poor shoemaker who often moves around. Entering into a world of their own, the pair carry out various tasks—painting a face on the church clock tower, staying silent for a day, leading the circus elephant to the schoolteacher's house, playing piano in public—becoming ever closer. But when one of the dares goes terribly wrong, and the children believe they will be severely punished and perhaps separated, they make a terrible choice...

Originally published in Sweden in 1964 as Den vita stenen, and then translated into English by Richard and Clara Winston in 1966, The White Stone is the first book I have read from Gunnel Linde, although I have been aware of her work for some time. The copy I read was illustrated by Imero Gobbato, and had a lovely cover. I found the book engaging, and entered into the children's imaginative play with interest. One of my favorite books of all time, Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Changeling , centers around two children and their imaginative world, and I myself had an imaginary kingdom, with its own made-up language and writing system, when I was a girl, so I was predisposed to sympathize with the story idea here, and with the characters. On the whole I did, although I found that the narrative, despite addressing the experiences of two outsiders, didn't evoke as strong of an emotional response as I expected it to do. I also found the conclusion of the book somewhat unsatisfying, on two scores. First, given the lack of emotional connection I felt, and the fact that the narrative seemed for the most part to run along happily on the surface, I found the introduction of suicide quite unexpected and incongruous. The book reads like a happy tale of dares and friendship, and then suddenly there are poison mushrooms, which the children actually swallow, in an apparent suicide pact. This just came out of left field for me, and felt jarring. It's possible that, owing to issues of translation, the deeper emotional undercurrents of the story didn't make it through to me, but as read, the story just didn't seem to support this development. Happily, this action proves unsuccessful, although the resolution, in which they explain everything to the judge, was the second unsatisfactory element, as I wanted them to describe their actions and motivations more fully, and make him understand. Perhaps we are meant to think that their experiences are too private to be understood, but there was more than a whiff of that 1960s "don't trust anyone over 30" feeling here, the idea that grownups just can't understand, that felt silly to me.

In any case, while these elements didn't ruin the book for me, they did make it less powerful and enchanting than it might have been. Perhaps it is an issue of translation, as some readers describe this as a childhood favorite. Leaving my criticisms aside, I do recommend this one, as an interesting story of children and their imaginary world.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The initial opening to the book was a bit rocky, I almost have up and put the book away, but I'm glad I didn't. Whilst there's a few places where the translation could have been done better, for the most part you can forgive them and read on without it having too much of a negative effect.

For the most part it's a sweet reminder of the imagination of youth and the generous portion sizes of children's emotions. Fear of grown ups, timidity around more dominant children, excitement, love, bravery, all in excessive doses without the full concept of rational or forward thinking (did you know that the party of the brain responsible for processing consequences isn't developed until adulthood?).

I just wish this sort of coming of age story didn't need to involve death, almost every time. Thankfully nothing serious happens, but it certainly wasn't necessary to even get to that point. My guess is that facing death is an important part of learning to live, but still, it puts me off slightly.

One thing I enjoyed about the format of the book is some fairly short chapters. It meant I could pick up the book more often and get through it quite quickly.

[Vela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a child, I always took it home from my school library in elemantary school. So much so that at one point I just took it home and never returned it again. I was lucky I guess, because nobody ever asked, haha.
But it seems like I totaly forgot what it was about, because it was like reading a new book. I loved it honestly. I guess I liked it so much because I was just like Fia in school and could somewhat relate. I guess I hoped that someone would come and take me out of my misary as well. Reading this book now was a welcome change from what I normally read, especially since I was sick in bed those past couple of days. Every couple of pages I just had to call out "cute", because it is just that... I could feel the youthful energy from the story, from the thinking of the two children and the world they built for themselves. Honestly, I wish I could erase my memory and read this book again because it was just so cute and magical.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little slice of life in a Swedish village, telling of the exploits of two somewhat outcast children with strong senses of imagination. The pair make a good match, each just the friend that the other needs. Both create alter egos, and between the two, true identities are kept unknown. The white stone is a prize that is passed back and forth as they successfully complete dares proposed by each other. There are adults who are often, but not always, enemies of the children. It's a pleasant enough book, but doesn't seem to have enough development to elevate it. Probably to my detriment, I was a little more interested in the interactions of the adults than those of the children. I especially liked the whole thing with the shirts and wish that could have been built on.

Note that a lime tree in Sweden is not the green citrus fruit, but is instead related to what in America is called a linden tree.

[KSena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really really wanted to give this book more stars. I really did. I saw the tv-show as a little kid. The white stone. About the two childeren that competed about the beautiful white stone that shimmers so beautiful and has the stoftest surface. The challanges end up worse and worse. Maybe not with modern eyes, but this story takes place at about the same time that Pippi Longstocking, and thinking on that the challanges are quite hard, and naughty.

What lowered my rating was the language. This is supposed to be a childerns book. Yes, it's written in 1964, but really? It's very poetic though for those into that. I mean, Astrid Lindgren wrote Pippi during the 1940's, and the language in those are far far easier.

I don't know. The story is beautiful still, but the language made it hard to read. A shame.

[Lowe Jacobsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Den var ärligt talat ganska tråkig… Tant Malin var vedervärdig. Barnens utmaningar till varandra var för könsstereotypa för min smak… Var nog mest investerad om ägget som skulle hämtas från häradshövdingens säng. Lite kul eller fint eller något det här med namnen ändå. Att de inte vill avslöja varandras riktiga identiteter för varandra även om de vet om dem. Att få kunna ha kvar leken. Eller något. Aja. Jag är glad att jag är färdig med boken nu.

[minoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

brought back some childhood memories. this was so cute and childish and i liked it a lot.

[Annie Rignell · Rating 2 out of 5]

En väldigt fin bok men den är dock ganska långtråkig och lite förvirrande i vissa delar.

[Linda]

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20540...

[Anna Wallman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oj, Fideli var alltså svarthårig!
Bra barnäventyr. Man minns lite från när man såg den på tv.

[Ruth Ericsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rolig saga!

[Märtha W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Läste tillsammans med yngsta dottern när hon var ca 10 år. Lite rolig och tokig om busiga barn. Också en hel del att diskutera och förundras (eller förfasas) över. Fantastiskt välskriven!

[Linn J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Den var väldigt långtråkig och jag skulle inte vilja påstå att det var super kul att läsa om två barn som utmanar varandra och sedan låstas vara något de vill vara men inte ”är”. Skulle inte vilja läsa om den men nöjd med mig själv. Efter s. 50 gick det helt enkelt bättre.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klassisk barnbok. Älskade TV-serien.
Underbar historia om två 'udda' barn, som finner gemenskap i sin rika fantasi.
Gemenskap att stå emot omgivningens tryck.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgi på hög nivå!
Jag minns att jag brukade kolla på den vita stenen som liten och var självklart tvungen att köpa boken när jag hittade den.

När jag läser i den får jag upp bilder ifrån filmerna/avsnitten och minns deras röster. Även texten är nästan ordagran så det var roligt.

Kanske är den skriven med lite äldre språk men jag tycker att den är lättläst och beskrivande.

Jag rekommenderar verkligen den här boken och även att se Den Vita Stenen om ni får möjlighet till det.

[zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Den Vita Stenen was one of my favourite programmes as a child. So, it was almost a mandatory thing to read the book once I came across a copy of it. And I loved it. Linde's writing was excellent and I remembered all the things from the programme and it was lovely to read. I had a bad case of nostalgia!

[Ida Electra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dette er en søt liten barnebok. Da jeg så denne boken kom jeg på TV-serien jeg så som barn, og det ga meg lyst til å lese denne boken. Det var en veldig nostalgisk opplevelse, veldig koselig. Til å være en så gammel barnebok synes jeg den er veldig fin, og begge hovedpersonene er underholdende, men særlig Hampus. Er gøy å se to små barn finne på så mange sprø påfunn. Veldig underholdende.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite books when I little--first read it in the 3rd grade I think.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, but read it in English: The White Stone.

[lethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een 4-sterrenboek uit mijn kindertijd.

[Kajsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

En helt fantastisk och underbar bok om vänskap ensamhet och utmaningar. Har läst den ett antal gånger, men den är läsvärd. Även TV-serie är riktigt fin