

Aatos ja Sofian meri (‘Aatos and Sofia’s Sea’) is the third picture book featuring a girl called Sofia and her friend, a boy by the name of Aatos. This book tells a sensitive story about a friendship between a boy and a girl. Aatos and Sofia do not always need to speak, but they still understand one another. They both know that they have each got their own friends during the school day. They can only meet up on the school grounds in the evenings when their schoolmates are not around. When Aatos and Sofia play together, they are immersed in the same events: They experience spring, which features the ice melting on the lake and the pale green light. Spring also carries a strong sense of expectations. Both children know that during the summer holiday, they can be friends no matter what their schoolmates think. In this series, author Riitta Jalonen (b. 1954) and author-illustrator Kristiina Louhi (b. 1950) have collaborated to produce a number of heartfelt picture books.