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  • Kirsi KunnasFinland ⋆ Author
  • Taylor Kraayenbrink

Kirsi Kunnas is a figure who looms large on the scene of Finnish children's literature. Kunnas has been a major agent in the development of this field for nearly sixty years. Finnish people recognize her work as comprising "poems and stories that unite generations." In fact, Finnish commentators refer to Kunnas as "the mother of modern Finnish children's lyric poetry."

Kunnas first emerged as a leading children's author in 1954 with the publication of her translation of The Tall Book of Mother Goose after writing several poetry collections for adults. She published her own collection of children's poetry in 1956 with The Tumpkin's Wonder Tree. Kunnas's poetry in this collection was multi-layered, addressed to a double audience of children and adults. In fact, since her earliest publications, Kunnas has distinguished herself as an author able to address both children and adults in the same text, and she has, as a rule, provided incisive and deliberate social commentary in all her work. Her publications could in many cases be classified as reform literature.

Finnish children's literature critics recognize Kunnas's vast corpus of poetry as liberating the national tradition from "boring didacticism," instead gesturing towards rich polysemity, allusive intertextuality, and the gleefully carnivalesque. However, the reader must not forget that Kunnas's work is often still subtly inclined towards public responsibility, and always maintains an ethical allegiance to social and political reform. Kunnas can provide a poem that comments on the universal sense of human loneliness, and in the next poem she might obliquely criticize the excesses of commercialism on television.

No matter what the topic of a Kunnas poem may be, both poem and topic are likely to be easily recognized in Finnish culture. Her work is central to the nation's national literature, and, like many Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees, Kirsi Kunnas is no stranger to official public recognition of her contributions to children's literature. Kunnas first received recognition for her work in the early stages of her career. She has been honored with the Finnish State Award for Literature four times. She was a recipient of the Tirlittan Prize in 1993 for her life's work in literature, and she received the Finnish State Award for contribution to Children's Culture in 1996.

Selected Bibliography

Aikamme lukukirja: 2-5 [Reading Book]. Helsinki: WSOY, 1969-72. Print.
Kis kis kissanpennut [Kis Kis Kittens]. Helsinki: Weilin + Göös, 1968. Print.
Lintuystävämme—Tietoa linnuista. 1-6. [Our Friend the Bird: Information About Birds] Illus. Kyllikki Röman. Helsinki: WSOY, 1969. Print.
Tapahtui Tiitiäisen maassa [It Happened in Tumpkin Land]. Helsinki: WSOY, 2004. Print.
Tiitiäisen satupuu [The Tumpkin's Wonder Tree]. Helsinki: WSOY, 1956. Print. [End Page 20]
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