“Picturebooks between Readers. Controversial Picturebooks in Norway and Denmark”When reading contemporary Scandinavian picturebooks, one may wonder who they are aimed at. The two picturebooks to be discussed in this article are the Danish book De skæve smil (The Crooked Smiles) (2008) by Oscar K. and Lilian Brøgger, and the Norwegian book Krigen (The War) (2013) by Gro Dahle and Kaia Dahle Nyhus. De skæve smil is a challenging picturebook about aborted foetuses, “those who never were born”. Krigen uses war metaphors to tell about a different kind of war, the war between two divorcing parents. Both books are existential picturebooks, illustrated in a naive drawing style with complex multi-layered narrative devices. They are challenging both thematically and in terms of their verbal and visual narrative devices. But unlike many other challenging Scandinavian picturebooks, they are also controversial and likely to offend their adult reader. What makes these picturebooks not only challenging but also highly controversial? This, in turn, leads to the question of audience: who are these picturebooks for?
