Anna-Clara Tidholm: Sweden Illustrator

A good book functions both with adults and children. The reading is a superior manner for children and adults to have fun together.

Anna-Clara Tidholm

Swedish illustrator and author Anna-Clara Tidholm was born in 1946 in Stockholm, Sweden. As an illustrator, she is self-taught and for over forty years she has created art for children's books, animated films, exhibitions, magazines, posters, and cartoons.

She studied literature at university and worked as a journalist before turning to drawing. Her first illustrated books were, on the one hand, politically critical in a manner typical of the period and, on the other hand, retellings of fairy tales such as Jätten och ekorren (The Giant and the Squirrel), Sagan om osten (Tale of the Cheese), Korven (The Sausage), Pojken och hans ulliga får (The Boy and his Woolly Sheep). Her breakthrough work was the still avant-garde picture book Åkeboken (The Åke Book), published in 1983 and written in collaboration with her husband Thomas Tidholm, a poet and musician.

Anna-Clara Tidholm expands on the child's perspective through a naïve style, as a child might draw, but often tackles difficult, sensitive subject matter with dark psychological undertones. Tidholm primarily uses watercolor, crayons, and colored pencils to create her illustrations. Using soft lines and varied shades of colors, she creates characters that widely appeal to children, usually from the child's point of view. Difficult subjects, such as the death of a grandparent, are accompanied by soothing, gentle illustrations.

Tidholm has created another following with her books for very early childhood, beginning with Knock! Knock! Knock!, a book with doors that encourage the child to become part of the storytelling experience. These stories allow even infants to have early interaction with literature and establish an on-going relationship with reading and books.

Anna-Clara Tidholm has created and collaborated on more than 50 children's books and has also illustrated for children's television. She has won numerous awards including the Elsa Beskow plaque, Expressen's Heffaklump, and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, among many others. Her picture books have been translated into many languages. Tidholm lives in Arbrå, Hälsingland in northern Sweden, where she also keeps hens and sheep.