By: Mari Kanstad Johnsen
Publisher: Gyldendal, Norway, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Sometimes you need a luminous rabbit...
A young girl is forced to move away from her friends. Her parents seem very excited about the move, and do not notice their daughters sadness. The girl is lonely both at home and at school, where she has a hard time making friends. One night, she decides to escape and ends up at a remote island - a fairytale-like place filled with luminous rabbits and strange, but beautiful vegetation...
Kanstad Johnsen is a famous Norwegian illustrator, known for her interesting artistic expression. Her illustrations are characterized by simple line drawings combined with single colors and large surfaces. She plays on contrasts: Her sketches of the human characters in the book are quite rough, which makes to the soft, glowing rabbits seem even fluffier, and the mysterious vegetation at the island even more fantastical. Through the book there are also contrasts between darkness and light, color and black-and-white, tiny details and full pages.
The artist portrays feelings of loneliness and exclusion with great sensitivity. The reader will emphatize with the young protagonist, but here is also lots of room for the readers to fill with their own imagination, emotions and experiences. The mix of reality and magic adds to this open, dreamlike, storytelling space.
Jeg rømmer (translates to "I escape/I'm out of here") was part of the publisher Gyldendal's series of what they called "wordfree" books, aimed at children between 6-9 years old. The book is quite small, approximately an A5-format, a choice probably made by the publisher to make it obvious that Jeg rømmer is not meant for kindergarten children. This might have been an effective marketing grip, but Kanstad Johnsen's illustrations would have benefited from being printed in a larger format, so that both all the wonderful details and interesting layouts of this book had more room to shine.
Mari Kanstad Jonsen has been chosen as the inaugural Illustration Ambassador for the Bologna Children's book fair for 2026. She is also the creator of this year's BolognaBookPLus 2026 visual identity.
