Stella and the Magic Stone follows a young girl visiting her grandfather who wants to find a magic stone to help him heal after an accident. What was the inspiration for your story?

Stella and the Magic Stone is primarily inspired by my childhood. Stella’s world is familiar to me in many ways. When you have had the opportunity to live in a scenic village in the Finnish lake district, it touches you for the rest of your life.

In the Stella books, I wanted to describe the safe experience that Finnish children have traditionally been able to experience in their environment. The possibility to move around alone and make your own decisions is perhaps more comprehensive than in many other countries or cultures. I understand that not all of Stella’s activities are suitable elsewhere, so she is not meant as a role model. I just tell readers about Stella’s life and environment as it might be inspirational.

Various experiences related to nature have always been important to me and have also inspired this book. There is summer with thunder, berry-picking, and playing in the middle of the forest – everyday activities for most Finnish children.

Another inspiration for this book comes from the relationships between children and grandparents. I think they can play a significant role in each other’s lives. That’s why I wanted to focus on an extraordinary period of the accident and its effects on the girl and her grandfather.

Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your story? 

Stella and the Magic Stone is an important book for me, with many personal experiences behind the story.

As mentioned earlier, Stella’s activities and the surroundings of the events have a solid connection to my own childhood.

I must also admit that the book’s main character carries two versions of myself with her. The first one is the independent little girl riding the little red bike in the home village and the roads around it, and the other one is the adult worried about her seriously ill father.

I was surprised by the power with which the story, my childhood memories, and my worries as an adult intertwined in this fairy tale. In writing the story, I went back to my childhood activities with my father – even though he turned into the main character’s grandfather in the fairy tale.

The situation related to the creation of this book, where I finished the manuscript and put the last point at the end of the text, was a special moment in another sense as well. At that particular second, in real life, I received a call from a doctor from the hospital where my father had just survived a major operation and was transferred to the recovery room.

Is there any moral or idea that you hope readers take away from the story?

A child’s relationship with nature and trust in its power is a central theme in this book, although the main theme is the deep connection between the girl and her grandfather.

When my book came out, some adults pointed out that miracles seem to play a significant role in the story. I think that’s precisely what fairy tales are often about – miracles that lift our experiences above everyday life and encourage us to trust ourselves even when we face difficulties.

For me, the miracles of the fairy tale represent hope and faith in the extraordinary power of love. I like to bring in nature experiences because, at least for me, nature has often offered help in many ways in difficulties. It can sometimes provide a refuge or a friend and support. The magical details nature offers – like the magic stone the girl found in this book – can become a symbol of life forces and give us faith in survival.

However, the most important message of this book is that affection and love between two people – the girl and her grandfather – are patient. From that, the girl in the story gets the strength to visit her unconscious grandfather’s hospital bed again and again. 

Even in a fairy tale, I don’t want to claim that the stone healed the grandfather. But I want to show how important it was that Grandpa could feel and sense the girl’s visits on some level. It certainly helped him to regain consciousness and recover.

Where does the next book in the Stella stories go, and what adventures will she have?

I have already written two other books about Stella – Stella and the Berry Bay and Stella and Her Spiky Friend. And more stories about this active girl’s adventures are ready in my head!

In the second one, Stella and the Berry Bay, her life takes a surprising turn when the family moves to another town. Moving away from their old home takes place in a difficult moment because Stella has imagined going to a familiar school with her friends. Now everything has changed: a new home, a new school, and new friends. But together, we can get through this, too!

In the third book, Stella and Her Spiky Friend, the girl meets interesting people in a new environment. In addition to her hedgehog friend, she gets to know the strange pharmacist whom the other children are afraid of.

My Stella books continue along the same line of encouraging children. In these stories, children have much freedom to act independently in a safe environment. I also describe cooperation between different people and people of different ages.

In real life, I learned a lot about this kind of interaction in my childhood. Seeing how different people could cooperate and work together was useful for my upbringing. The community also included those whose actions could not be accepted or who harmed others. Mostly, though, problems were solved together. Small towns and country villages are good teachers!

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