The latest Pomenia fairytale book, No Rough-and-Tumble for Sinopia Surly, was published in 2023. Since then, the trees of the fairytale forest have shed their leaves many times, winters have passed, and spring has awakened the forest again and again.
In the story room, at my art table, a great deal has been happening that we have kept carefully hidden. Of course there have been fairytale sketches, book adventures, games and all the things there should be — after all, I have been a fairytale artist for more than 30 years.
Although no new fairytales have been published, I have always known that if I ever returned to writing and illustrating, it would have to be something truly special. Not quick, meaningless stories forgotten even faster, but complete book series, worlds and fairytale characters built with love, feeling and magic.
New fairytales have not remained unpublished because I lacked opportunities. Quite the opposite.
I simply did not want to bring the magical worlds I had created into a children’s book market at a time when the competition is not about meaning, purpose or whether a work awakens feelings and thoughts, but about seconds of visibility, algorithms and attention. Above all, I did not want to make works whose only purpose was to fill the moment before the next stimulus.
For a long time, I therefore thought that my part in creating fairytale books had already been done.
When the World Moves in a Strange Direction, We Need to Create More Magic
But then I realised something essential.
If I believe imagination matters, I have to make room for it.
If I believe creativity matters, I have to defend it.
If I believe fairytales, stories, magic and play matter, I have to create them even when the world seems to be moving in the opposite direction.
We do not read Hans Christian Andersen today because we want to study nineteenth-century Denmark. We do not return to The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling or The Snow Queen because of their age. We return because longing, the feeling of being an outsider, love, courage, fear, hope and dreams still exist. They have not disappeared from life.
That is why we need real stories and real magic — stories that are not born from chasing publicity, algorithms or attention, but from the heart and from the ability to awaken feeling and thought. Stories that do not try to win the next second, but are returned to years later.
Trends come and go.
The magic of a story is timeless.
Two Tiny Brothers Who Changed Everything
And that was when two brothers appeared in my thoughts.
Brothers who look so alike that even they do not always know which one is which.
Two tiny creatures who reminded me why I began building Pomenia in the first place. Why I began telling stories. Why I began painting fairytale forests, imagining magical places and believing that imagination, creativity and play do not belong only to childhood — they belong in everyone’s life.
Brothers who brought back big dreams, impossible plans, warmth, friendship, bedtime stories and that feeling that together, anything seems possible.
Pixley & Pinkey.
Four stories.
Four seasons.
And roughly 1,478 adventures, mishaps, Onkelmas, Ropleemas and Katasrooffis.
From the Shadows into the Spotlight — and from Mural Walls into a Fairytale Book
This is not a brand-new project conjured from nowhere. The brothers have been part of Pomenia’s journey for a long time. Sharp-eyed readers may already have spotted them in The Secret of the Fairydust, and their adventures can also be found in the Pomenia trilogy and in several murals around Finland.
Until now, however, the brothers have travelled a little to the side, pondering their own ideas and sketching their plans.
Now it is their turn to step — or rather, bounce — into the spotlight.
Their life among the whispering firs is full of mischief, secret drawings, enormous snack bags, high-speed experiments, adventure hats, disobedient slippers, speed whistles and plans that are far too big.
Even Something Tiny Can Be Great and Magnificent
But beneath all the fun lies something much more important.
❤️Brotherhood.
❤️Friendship.
❤️Courage.
❤️Love.
And the idea that even something tiny can be great, magnificent and absolutely joyfully enormous!
That is what Pixley & Pinkey are really about.
A story should be felt all the way from your heart to your toes!
Children Are Not Simple
When I look at children’s culture today, I too often see imagery that is simplified, sanitised and visually poor. We assume that less is enough for a child.
I think the opposite.
Children are not simple.
Why, then, would we offer them a simplified and meaningless world?
A Fairytale Book Made for a Hundred Readings, Not Just One
When I write a book, I do not write only a story. I build an entire world, from its very first thoughts to its final fairytale images and words.
I do not make something funny merely for the sake of being funny. I do not chase trends, and I certainly do not force play simply because play is expected. A Magical World is MUCH, MUCH more than a hurried story, a visually impoverished world and yet another tired fart joke.
So what kind of fairytale books do I make?
The kind that can be read a hundred times instead of once.
The kind that do not end on the final page, but continue in imagination, in play and in new adventures invented by the child long after the reading is over.
The kind in which an adult suddenly finds, in the middle of reading, that they remember something they thought they had forgotten long ago.
That is why the pages are full of details.
That is why there are secrets.
That is why there are Onkelmas, Ropleemas, Katasrooffis and tiny enormous surprises.
Because childhood does not need less art or less meaning.
Because adults do not need less imagination.
We need more Magical Worlds and more stories.
Welcome to the Secret Society
And so we arrive at this moment.
This is not about one book, but about an entirely new Pomenia book series and the educational material being built around it.
Fairytale Socks and Grand Plans is the first step in a journey that moves from spring to summer, from autumn to winter, and through all the wonderful, exciting adventures the brothers can possibly fit in along the way. A lot of them.
I want to invite you into this moment, right at the beginning, while everything is still possible and the grand plans are still only secret drawings on paper.
That is why the first Pixley & Pinkey adventure opens with a pre-order inside the Secret Society.
It is not a marketing trick or a stunt.
It is a way of building something lasting, meaningful and valuable together.
This first edition is a Limited Edition.
It will exist only once.
And this is that moment.
Welcome back to the Magical World of Pomenia!
❤️ The brothers are already waiting.
❤️ And the door to the Secret Society is finally open.
Psst!
If you hear whispering beneath the roots of a fir tree, feel a tiny tickle at the tip of your nose, or are absolutely certain that somewhere another FAR TOO BIG plan is being hatched, you are probably very much correct.
👉EXPLORE THE PRE-ORDER LEVELS AND ENTER THE SECRET SOCIETY HERE
Meet some of the Pomenians adventuring in the new book series!
(of course, not everyone is revealed right-here-and-now)
