‘Nothing is too much for a child’: the Norwegian books for kids tackling taboo topics from IVF to incest

In the Nordic country, books covering subjects such as childbirth and sex have become bestsellers among younger readers – and an export hit. Behind their success lies a unique philosophy of childhood learning ‘I wasn’t aware that I am such a brave writer and illustrator,” says Anna Fiske, a softly spoken Swedish-born author living in Norway who received death threats for a book she wrote in 2019. “I just tell things as they are.” Fiske doesn’t write political polemics but books for children: the title of the offending book is Hvordan Lager Man en Baby?, “How Do You Make a Baby” – and, yes, there are illustrations. Distributed in English-speaking territories through Fiske’s New Zealand publisher, it triggered threats from Canada and was banned from several school libraries in the US. “They said it was pornographic.” In jaunty line drawings, Fiske’s book depicts complex issues such as IVF, insemination and adoption as well as what goes where during intercourse. A mother’s group in Russia contacted her to object to the grimacing, contorted faces on her drawings of women giving birth. “They said, you must draw happy faces,” she recalls, laughing. “Li