Laura Lohiniva-Hart – Maija’s World children’s picture books are for kids growing up with different languages and cultures
We are always super happy to find interesting European people from different professions to feature at our website. This time you’ll meet Laura Lohiniva-Hart. She currently lives in Seattle, USA with her German husband and two kids. She has written a multi-cultural children’s book with her friend Katrin. Not surprisingly, the main character is Finnish Maija who lives in Australia. Read more about her life and the book below in Laura’s own words.
I am a mother of two, born in Lapland Finland, but lived and worked already over 10 years abroad in Sweden, France, Switzerland, Australia and since last year in Seattle US.
I got interested in children’s literature when my kids were born in Australia. Growing up myself in Northern Finland, my childhood was quite different from the international settings where my kids were growing up in Australia not to mention the climate and how it influences the daily life.
I could find very few Finnish children’s books written for Finnish children abroad, which inspired me to write a story about a girl called Maija with many cultural backgrounds living in a cultural diverse Australia. I was lucky to find a like-minded mother, friend and talented artist Katrin Klinger to do the illustrations.
Maija’s World – Possums and Reindeer is a children’s picture book and we have published it in Finnish, German and English as these are the languages used in both of our families. Even though Maija book reflects Finnish, German and Australian cultures and the way of living, we hope this book will be useful and cherished for any family living with different cultures at home or abroad.
You can order our book here and we donate all the sales royalties to Malala FundMalala Fund that is supporting underprivileged girls to get an education. .
You can as well visit us on facebook.com/Maijasworld
We hope many more children will love and enjoy this book as much as our children do.
Kiitos! Thank you!
This book is published in Finnish, German and English
