Ulf Stark

Ulf Stark

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Ulf Stark was born in 1944 in southern Stockholm, Sweden. He grew up in a household full of books and loved spending time in his father's library. Every night when his mother read him and his brother a story he says, "our nursery was inhabited with fire-breathing dragons, pilots from the Royal Airforce, princesses, pigs and well-dressed elephants from Celesteville."

He published his first poetry collection aged 19 and, in 1975, he wrote his first children's book Tom Petty and the Red Bird. With his next book, Miss Simone, he won the Bonniers Children's Book Prize. This book became a television series and was also made into a musical.

He began a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels for older children, beginning with My Friend Percy's Magical Gym Shoes, and following this with My Friend Percy and the Sheik and My Friend Percy and Buffalo Bill, all of which are published in English by Gecko Press. Gecko also publishes his illustrated storybook Can You Whistle, Johanna ?, which was nominated for the August Award and made into a film that has been shown on Swedish television every Christmas since 1994.

Ulfs book's have been translated into more than 20 languages and he has twice been nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Books by Ulf Stark published in English

Can You Whistle, Johanna?, illustrated by Anna Hglund (Gecko Press)
My Friend Percy's Magical Gym Shoes (Gecko Press)
My Friend Percy and The Sheik (Gecko Press)
My Friend Percy and Buffalo Bill (Gecko Press)
Fruitloops and Dipsticks (Gecko Press)

Praise for My Friend Percy and The Sheik

"If you've not come across Swedish author Ulf Stark yet, you are truly missing a treat."
Nelson Mail, July 2007

Praise for Can You Whistle, Johanna?

"This story touches the heart. It manages to be charming, warm, funny, poignant and sad all at once and it's told in such a way that a grandparent can reminisce and a young person can understand about friendship and loss not just through their own eyes but through the perspective of a much older person."
PETA (Primary English Teachers Association), Australia, August 2007

For more information about Ulf and his books, you can visit:

www.geckopress.co.nz