posted on 03 Apr 2025

The Playdate by Uje Brandelius & Clara Dackenberg

One of my favourite children’s picture books of the year so far, The Playdate by the Swedish author Uje Brandelius and illustrated by fellow Swede, Clara Dockenberg, is a sensitive and insightful story about social divisions and economic divides. I know that this makes it sound terribly ‘worthy’ but it’s really not like that at all – the skill of writer and illustrator takes us into those difficult issues without bashing us over the head with its social commentary.

Told in the first person by a young girl who, with her mum, is excited by the prospect of going out for the day to play with her friend Henry and his dog. The girl and her mum have a journey from their flat across town by bus and underground and, on the way, they pass a toyshop and we become aware that this is a journey the two have done before – maybe several times – because the girl has to check-out the toy robot in the window that she knows her mum will never be able to afford.

They arrive at Henry’s big open house and, as the children run off and start playing, we follow them from room to room. As they engage in all the usual fantasy games that children on a playday will get up to if they have the space to run around, we suddenly start to notice that this isn’t just a social call. In the background of their fun is the young girl’s mum with a vacuum cleaner, then a bucket and cleaning fluid – and when lunchtime comes, they eat in the kitchen, separate from Henry and his mum. The young girl’s mum is here because she’s Henry's family cleaner.

And, as if to underline, the social gulf that has now become clear to us, the young girl comes across a bag of toys and there’s one she recognises straight-away:

“There’s an enormous bag of toys. Right on the top there’s a robot. It’s exactly the same one I want more than anything in the whole wide world…”

Soon after it’s time to head off back across town but the young girl doesn’t travel easily – she has a guilty secret she must confess to her mother…..

This beautifully paced, compassionate and subtle exploration of how a young girl experiences the brutal realities of how it feels to be on the wrong side of the wealth divide is superbly enhanced by Clara Dackenberg’s illustration – this is a great example of story and illustration working hand-in-hand to create something more than the sum of its parts.

Available now from Lantana Publishing, you’ll be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

Terry Potter

April 2025