Tatu and Patu: This is Finland

By Aino Havukainen & Sami Toivonen

Those wacky Oddville brothers Tatu and Patu do not leave a stone, a sauna, or even a Santa unturned in their quest to get to the bottom of Finland, its history, its wild natural landscape, or even its quirky inhabitants.

The boys travel the country from the capital to the far north of Lapland and explore what ingredients go into producing the strange nation known as Suomi. The result is a handy recipe to make a Finland all your own.

Tatu and Patu go on to explore what makes the Finland that we know. With history, the boys portray themselves as living during different time periods of Finnish history. To present some of the most significant Finnish public figures, Tatu and Patu become detectives to trace their lost belongings, like Jean Sibelius’ sheet music, and Paavo Nurmi’s sneakers. The boys also learn about Finland’s form of government as Patu decides that he wants to be appointed the new Santa Claus.

Tatu and Patu also present aspects of the Finland of today as news anchors Patu-Arto Newsberg and Tatu-Christiane Adlib-Montage. They share, for example, a sports report on how a popular team of “feisty lions” has been skating after a black piece of rubber all night and winning the game!
In the end, the boys also get to visit the Virtanen family who show some of the everyday life of an ordinary Finnish family. They explore some of the typical objects in a Finnish home, like the Alvar Aalto vase, and get to eat some blueberry pie.

This incredibly entertaining book also includes “Tatupatu-tests” that are one-page comics and which investigate “Finnish oddities” such as the sauna, rye bread, and midsummer at the cottage. Welcome to Finland as presented by the Oddville boys!

Publishing information

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.