Ilja Karsikas: Storm and Light

“Curiosity calls the daredevil out for adventures, All the dreamer needs for adventures is the full moon.”

Author: Ilja Karsikas
Finnish original: Myrsky ja Valo
Publisher: S&S, 2023 (spring)
Genre: illustrated children’s fiction
Number of pages: 40 pp.
Reading material:  Finnish original, English translation

Storm and Light are best friends and the most important people in the world to each other. But in personality they are total opposites. Storm hungers for wild adventures out in the world, while Light traverses imaginary paths and the world inside his head. Storm talks to anyone and everyone in any language imaginable, while Light reflects and ponders and creates a totally new language.

And although Storm ventures out into the world alone, she always comes back, bringing the starts of wondrous flowers to plant among the seeds of Light’s words.

“Does happiness live at home or out in the world?” Light asked.
“What about sadness? Where does it live?” Storm replied. Light smiled. “In a contest between flavors, do potatoes beat chili peppers?”
“Is morning more beautiful in the Alps or from your own window?”

Storm and Light is a tender story of friendship and love. The individual stories of the characters interlace, and big questions of love and human connection overlap aphoristically with shared memories of lovely summer day.

Also available:
Ilja Karsikas: The Unicorn (2022)
Under the Moon (2020)

About the author:
Ilja Karsikas