Princess Aasta is about a little princess who decides she would like to have a bear as a companion.  Being a self-assured little princess, she knows to send an advertisement, which the illustration shows us is word-processed, to the Guardian newspaper.  In due course many bears respond.  She choses one bear called Kvitebjorn on the strength of his friendly eyes.  So begins a charming and loyal friendship between the two. 

Aasta’s father, the King, is not quite comfortable with the friendship between his precious daughter and this huge Polar Bear, but he does not try to stand in its way, even when Kvitebjorn asks that he be allowed to take Aasta to visit the North Pole. 

The tale, told in stark and simple language and scrawly, partially coloured pictures, gives the story a bit of an edge, so that the reader is not quite sure whether some dangerous fate awaits Aasta.  Without spoiling the ending I can tell you it is a happy one, without being too neatly wrapped up – in fact it is as if the story has stopped before the ending, which throws you out of the tale with quite a jolt.

Don’t be put off by this ending, or by Stina Langlo Ordal’s superb artwork.  Neither are of the sweet, safe variety which often accompany fairy tales but it is Ordal’s skill in combining what appear to be fragments of the story, both textually and visually which lend it such a sophisticated feel. Although its starkness and emptiness are quite confronting at first, this combination is beautiful to read and to look at, so you will not come away feeling hungry.  In fact it is what is left out (visually and textually) that makes this such a fulfilling tale.

 I highly recommend it – not least because it is not swamped by the political correctness of safeness, which seems attached to many traditionally based stories these days.

Review by Sarah Mayor Cox

© 2002 Sarah Mayor Cox