Can You Whistle Johanna

Ulf Stark, illustrated by Anna Höglund

There are plenty of old men who would do as a grandfather at the retirement home, Ulf suggests, when Berra wonders why he doesn’t have one. They go there together to find one – ideally one who eats pig’s trotters, invites you to tea and who can teach you to whistle.

This is a sensitive book, a classic in many countries, about a friendship between two boys and the man they adopt as grandfather.

The book received the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1994 and the fiml based on the book is shown around Christmas every year on Swedish National TV.