Meet the Judges 2022: Viveka Alvestrand

Our sixth and final judge for 2022 is unsurpassed in her OBP expertise, as she has been on the panel every year since the Prize’s inception! Please meet the exceptional Viveka Alvestrand - Oscar’s mother and Prize co-founder - who gives her insight on her favourite part of the Prize, a wonderfully unusual memory of reading The Hobbit, and some of her favourite picture books from her native Sweden..

Thanks so much, Viveka!

What is your earliest or best memory of reading a book as a young child? 

My mum reviewed children’s books as part of her job, so I was lucky to have access to many of them during my childhood. I also remember going to the local library a lot with my nursery and the smell of the books there. One sniff and I was hooked! I always made a beeline for Curious George, I adored (still do!) the illustrations.

The Complete Adventures of Curious George by Margret and H.A. Rey, published by Welbeck

 

Who was your favourite person to read with as a child? Who do you read picture books with now?

My dad has a lovely reading voice. He read a lot to me and my brother as kids. We had a yacht we used to be out in for weeks on end during the summer holidays, in the Swedish archipelago. When we hit a lull en route to a new island he’d read to us to pass the time. I vividly remember him reading The Hobbit out loud on a very calm and, subsequently, long sea crossing to Åland. My father now loves to read to my daughter Alice, Oscar’s little sister, which is lovely.

Now Alice is 10 so we’ve gradually been moving away from picture books in favour of chapter books, but she has old favourites that we go back to. And she loves to get involved when the submissions for Oscar’s Book Prize start arriving.

 

Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy World, published by HarperCollins

What was your favourite picture book as a child, and/or of all time?

I can’t pick one, there have been too many! The illustrations of Swedish author and illustrator Elsa Beskow had me enthralled as a child, as did John Bauer’s troll stories. The forest – where these creators often based their characters – has always fascinated me. I also loved Richard Scarry’s books. So much to absorb on every page. And I still have a soft spot for Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge series. Oh but to be able to draw that well!

An Illustrated Treasury of Swedish Folk and Fairy Tales, John Bauer, published by Floris Books

 

What sort of books are you hoping to discover when reading for the Prize? What are you looking for in a winner?

I would like the winner of Oscar’s Book Prize 2022 to be a tale that captivates a child through the story it tells and the vistas it serves up. And I want it to spark and feed their imagination – because that’s one of the most powerful things in life. Children’s imaginations are the stuff of wonder, and the authors and illustrators of children’s books that help them along are akin to magicians.

Picking a winner is all about the feeling I get when reading the book. It’s got to ignite something in me, be that hope, happiness, courage or something else. For me that typically only happens when the words and illustrations are perfectly synched – and that’s no easy thing. But when it happens, you just know.

 

 What do you think the best thing about picture books are?

I think it’s got to be the power they have to transport you from the here and now into a totally different place, even if just for a few minutes. That feeling of being in the middle of the action, on that page, is just the best. And, as a parent and an adult, when you see it happening to a child that’s being read to – well that’s even better!

 

This is your ninth year as judge - what part of judging do you enjoy most?

I don’t think I can distil it into just one thing. For me it’s the whole process. From the privilege of being able to read all the submitted titles and whittling them down into the long- and shortlist to battling (!) it out with the other judges on Judging Day and last, but by no means least, experiencing the winner’s reaction when the announcement is made. We’ve had so many deserving winners over the years and it’s been amazing to see their careers go from strength to strength.

About Viveka Alvestrand

Viveka Alvestrand is Oscar’s mother and co-founder of Oscar’s Book Prize. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, she is a self-confessed book worm, and studied Youth & Children’s Literature at Stockholm University before moving to the UK. She works in digital media, and also designs and makes her own line of contemporary jewellery in Surrey.