Selina Chönz (1910–2002)

Florina and Ursli, the siblings featured in two previous picture-books from Romansch poet Selina Chönz, and artist Alois Carigiet - A Bell for Ursli (1945) and Florina and the Wild Bird (1952) - return in this third adventure, confronting a winter snowstorm that hits their home in the Swiss Engadine. Ursli, determined that his sled shall be the best decorated at the upcoming sledding party, sends Florina into town for some tassels. After cleaning the spinning woman's floor to earn the tassels, Florina heads home, only to be caught in an avalanche. Ursli is wild with remorse, and searches for her, finding her alive and well, after she sheltered under the massive Weather Tree. In the end, the children share their tassels with their friends at the sledding party, and agree to replant the Weather Tree, destroyed by the avalanche, the next spring...

Like its predecessors, I enjoyed The Snowstorm, published in German as Der gross Schnee,** both for the glimpses it gave of Engadine culture, and for the lovely artwork of Alois Carigiet. The scenes in which Florina must bargain and work for the tassels reminded me of various folktales I have read (not to mention such classic tales as Elsa Beskow's Pelle's New Suit), although it possibly also represents an older model of community, in which it was more common to barter goods and labor. The seasonal activities in which the children participate - sledding, in this case, bell processions, in A Bell for Ursli - were fascinating. The contrast between the colorful warmth of the indoor scenes, and the expanses of white page employed in the outdoor ones, is a marked one, and emphasizes the coziness of one and the coldness of the other. Although the rhyming text itself was awkward - "Each child paints and trims without rest / to make his be decorated best" - I put that down to difficulties of translation. Looking back, it would appear I have done so in the case of all three of Chönz's books, which leads me to suspect that either her poetry is rather mediocre (unlikely, given its status as a classic, in Switzerland), or it simply doesn't translate that well. However that may be, I would recommend this (textual issues and all) to anyone looking for Swiss children's books, readers who enjoyed the first two outings with Florina and Ursuli, and to fans of the artist.

**If Chönz published this in Romansch first, before having it translated into German, as she did with A Bell for Ursli, I have not been able to discover that original title.… (mehr)

Originally published in 1945 as Uorsin, this classic Romansch-Swiss picture-book presents the story of a young boy named Ursli, and the overnight Alpine adventure that results from his determination to carry one of the larger bells, in his village's annual Procession of the Bells, held to drive out Winter, and welcome in Spring. Told in rhyming couplets, the tale follows Ursli as, chores completed, he rushes to his Uncle Gian's farmhouse with the other boys, only to come up with the smallest, tinkliest bell of all! Determined not to be a laughing-stock, Ursli heads for his family's summer hut, on the mountainside, where he knows he can find a very large bell indeed...

I enjoyed A Bell for Ursli, not least because it depicted a cultural tradition with which I was entirely unfamiliar - knowing nothing of the pastoral lifestyle, or seasonal village customs of the Engadine - in a way that fit naturally into an engaging story about a little boy. The narrative itself felt a little forced, with a rhyme-scheme that didn't always convince me, but I set that down to translation. The illustrations, done by Alois Carigiet, have a vintage style and aesthetic sensibility that feel very appropriate for the story. All in all, an engaging book! I think my own response was somewhat less enthusiastic than I had hoped, given this book's status as a "classic," but I was sufficiently impressed that I will seek out Selina Chönz and Alois Carigiet's Florina and the Wild Bird.… (mehr)