Carnival and Potato Salad

Rights sold: Finnish, Latvian

In Carnival and Potato Salad, Kivirähk continues the style of storytelling he left off with in his extremely popular collection of children’s tales titled Poo and Spring. As usual for Kivirähk’s stories, familiar everyday objects often get fresh starts in life – an eraser can become a football, or a pillow can be a teacher. Readers are given a close look at the tribulations of a white dress shirt and the worries of a button that falls off a boy’s trousers while he is playing. Even a vacuum who happened to read a book has no problem heading to the banks of the Limpopo River to save an elephant calf from a crocodile. Each and every thing in Kivirähk’s stories has a task to fulfil, undoubtedly pointing children’s fantasies in a new direction.