Tatu and Patu in Helsinki
By
Aino Havukainen & Sami Toivonen
A colourful and funny story of the Oddville boys Tatu and Patu as tourists in Helsinki.
The boys come to meet their cousin Jori, a busy businessman, with whom Tatu and Patu struggle to keep up with. But Jori leads them around Helsinki, taking the boys to some of the best places the city has to offer.
Tatu and Patu then end up on an adventure that takes them from The National Museum to the Olympic Stadium, then to the Linnanmäki amusement park from where they continue to the renowned Market Square, and then to the Korkeasaari Zoo.
With the Oddville boys, you will follow an eventful journey through the historical Helsinki which is also bound to have hilarious twists and turns!
Tatu and Patu in Helsinki has entertained children, both living in Helsinki and visiting the city, for 20 years now! The book was also nominated for the Finlandia Junior Prize in 2003. The prize committee’s motivation for nominating the book:
“Havukainen and Toivonen have riotous fun with perspectives and build up marvellous, even surrealistic pages. Their style is very much their own, worked up with love and with a wonderful sense of fun."
About the author
Aino Havukainen & Sami Toivonen work together as children’s authors, illustrators, and graphic designers. For the young Finnish readers they are best known as the creators of the hilarious Oddville boys, Tatu and Patu, whose limitless imagination we can admire already in 23 titles to date. The riotous humour of these hugely popular illustrated books appeals to children and adults alike. Tatu and Patu: This is Finland won the Finlandia Junior prize in 2007, and in 2017 the authors were granted the Finland State Prize for Children’s Culture. In Finland Tatu and Patu books have sold over 1.3 million copies and the translation rights have been sold in 31 languages. Aino Havukainen was born in 1968. She graduated as a graphic designer from Lahti Institute of Design in 1992 and has worked as multimedia designer and as an AD in an advertising agency until the beginning of her free lance career in 1996.Sami Toivonen was born in 1971. He graduated also as a graphic designer from Lahti Institute of Design in 1994 and has worked free lance since 1996. He was awarded in 1989 with the Finnish Critics’ Association’s award “Boost for Criticism” for his comic strips, given annually to a young artist for a fresh artistic breakthrough.
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