The travelling bookshop: Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer by Katrina Nannestad. Illus. by Cheryl Orsini

Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer is the seventh book in The travelling bookshop series by award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad. The narrative is the first person voice of Mim Cohen our central character who is a girl of primary years age. Mim and her family live in a magical caravan that is actually a travelling bookshop that chooses for itself where it will go next depending on where there is a need. So far, other books in the series have taken Mim, her dad and brother, a horse called Flossy and other assorted animals to a Dutch village, a Greek island, Paris, the Cotswalds, Venice and Salzburg. Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer takes the reader to Norway. Children following the gentle and fun adventures of Mim and her family will have quite the geography lesson.

Nannestad weaves in cultural and social aspects of the countries visited. Thus in Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer, the reader is not only immersed in the topography of mountains and fjords but also in Viking history, in the mythology of trolls and in the social make-up of a Norwegian village - the handicrafts, the people and the farm life. Mention of the recession of the forests is acknowledged through the encroachment of wolves and moose on the villagers as their habitats are diminished. 

Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer is a story about family and matching books to people. The message, in a lighthearted way, is that books (the right books) can change lives. Its is Mim's father's business in life to place the right book in the right hands at the right time in order for lives to be changed. Even though they can't see it at the time, each selection works out and lives are changed. The travelling bookshop, when it has solved the problem of the village, moves on to the next adventure in another real-life location somewhere in the world where it is needed. The central problem in Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer is that Norbert, the fruit farmer, cannot solve the problem of the missing apples. If Mim and her father can't help he will lose his farm. In the meantime, Mim has her own problems with her mother not being with them and having to be a mother to her little brother who is scared of everything especially trolls after reading The three Billy Goats Gruff (a traditional Norwegian fairy tale). Problems are met head on and solved in creative ways even if it means the family cannot uses bridges (for fear of trolls) and must travel in a paddleboat shaped like a duck. 

Whimsical, warm and imaginative, Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer is another gentle family adventure by a beloved author. The delightful illustrations for the entire series are by Sydney based Cheryl Orsini. Little sketches are scattered throughout the pages and further add to the fanciful and playful nature of Nannestad's story line.

With such a sprinkling of magic, kindness and good, along with plenty of good-natured bluster and quirky problems to be solved, Mim and the frazzled fruit farmer,  like the other books in The travelling bookshop series, is a delightful addition to primary school libraries and to primary aged children's booklists for reading for pleasure.

Themes: Norway, Importance of books, Family, Friendship.

Wendy Jeffrey