Month: September 2025

The Slovenian edition of Radio Popov by Anja Portin has received the Golden Pear Label for excellent children’s books.

More wonderful news for Radio Popov by Anja Portin, a long-standing success in children’s literature: the Slovenian edition, in translation by Julija Potrč Šavli and published by KUD Sodobnost, has received the Golden Pear Label for excellent children’s books.

Every year, a selection of 100 children’s titles across four categories receive the Golden Pear Label for excellent children’s book, an actual label in the form of a sticker placed on the books to boost their visibility in libraries and bookshops. From this list, a jury then selects the winners of the Golden Pear Award during the Ljubljana Book Fair, in November.

Radio Popov is one of the most successful children’s books of the last decade: it won the Finlandia Prize upon its release, and has already travelled to 27 language territories. It follows Alfred, a nine-year-old boy who lives practically alone. His mother is not in the picture and his father is constantly busy with work and business trips. During one of these business trips Alfred is left alone for so long he runs out of food, and electricity is cut off.

When everything seems lost, Alfred is saved by a mysterious stranger who delivers food and woollen socks in lonely children’s letterboxes. It is the beginning of a wonderful adventure that will lead Alfred to a new family, and to saving more forgotten children. Alfred’s story is moving, and touches on social issues, but also contains joy, friendship, and a happy ending.

Anja Portin has quickly become a favourite among children’s authors with her middle grade novel Radio Popov. She writes about children who take matters into their own hands when grownups do not want to take responsibility or are not there to do it. Her latest novel is The Book of Misty Trees, also for a middle-grade audience. In Finland, her works are published by S&S.

Warm congratulations to the author, the translator, and the publisher!

Psichogios has secured the Greek rights to The Hues series by Vuokko Hurme in a two-book deal, marking the second foreign deal for this series.

The Hues series by Vuokko Hurme is travelling to Greece, where Psichogios has secured the rights to the first two books of the series. This is the second foreign deal for the series, whose first book Ruby’s Secret is already out in Italian with Mimebù.

The Hues are a family where each member is able to control the colours of their own possessions, and can handle them and move them about by willpower. Ruby’s colour is red and her big sister Skye’s is blue, while their little brother Forrest is still looking for his colour. When the Hues, hiding their secret skills, move once again, something changes: Ruby no longer wants to be an eternal outsider – no matter the cost. So begins the series, which follows the members of the Hues family as they each find their colour, and their place in the world. Pitched as The Incredibles meets Inside Out, The Hues series is a colourful series about friendship, otherness, and living an ordinary life with extraordinary powers.

Vuokko Hurme (b. 1979) is a children’s author based in Helsinki whose output includes nonfiction, novels and picture books for children. Her children’s books are published in Finland by Schildts & Söderströms.

Psichogios is a Greek publishing house with a broad selection of domestic and international fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. They are the Greek home of, among others, John Green, Percival Everett, Roald Dahl, and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Whimpy Kid series.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!