Sune (book series)


The Sune series is a series of books for children and young adults, published since 1984, by Swedish writers Anders Jacobsson and Sören Olsson. The stories were originally 90 episodes made for the Swedish Radio and broadcast in 1983–93. The stories are set in the fictional town of Glimmerdagg in central Sweden, situated "somewhere between Karlskoga and Örebro", with the Söderskolan for children age 7-13. The books are written in a present tense, third-person narrative and using imperfect for flashback scenes.

Sune

Sune Andersson is a Swedish schoolboy, living in a two-storey, single-family house with his father Rudolf who works in an office, mother Karin who is a librarian, big sister Anna, and little brother Håkan "Bråkan". In the third book Självklart, Sune, Sune's little sister Isabelle, is born. His complete name is "Karl Sune Rudolf Andersson".
Just like Bert in Bert Diaries, a similar book series by Jacobsson and Olsson, Sune is interested in girls, and refers to himself as a "girl charmer". His childhood friend and girlfriend is Sophie Blixt, but Sune also shows interest in other girls, as long as they are not mean.

Background

In 1983 Anders Jacobsson worked in a primary school in Karlskoga. Little had changed since he himself was in first grade, children played similar games and books for children and young adults were pretty much the same. Jacobsson heard that the local Örebro radio station was looking for a radio program that could be about anything, as long as it had a local connection. Jacobsson wrote an episode about Sune, recorded it in his own studio, and sent it to the station. The episode was well received and he was asked to make a Sune series. Jacobsson wrote more episodes and soon listeners called demanding to hear the rest of Sagan om Sune. Soon after that, the stories about Sune were broadcast to all of Örebro County. Many people listened to Sune at work and at home. He was a 7-year-old boy in first grade who had a friend called Joakim Fröberg. Sune was not the typical "tough guy" who used to fight or play soccer, instead he was more interested in girls.
Local publisher Hegas contacted Jacobsson and asked if they could publish a book with the stories about Sune. Olsson illustrated the resulting book Sagan om Sune, published just before Christmas in 1984. The second book was Sune börjar tvåan 1985, Olsson also took part in the writing. The third book, Självklart, Sune 1986, was a collaboration with both of them as writers. Jacobsson and Olsson had originally planned to conclude the Sune series with Sune och Svarta Mannen 1989, to work on the Bert series they had started two years earlier. Instead both series continued.
Two series of the Swedish Television Christmas calendars are based on the Sune books: Sunes jul 1991 and Håkan Bråkan 2003. In 1998, Familjen Anderssons sjuka jul was the Swedish Radio calendar. The film Sune's Summer based on the book Sunes sommar premiered in 1993 and the film Håkan Bråkan & Josef was released in 2004.

Television series

The animated television series The World of Tosh features the 9-year-old Sune. In the series, Sophie acts more like a tomboy and Sune does not seem to fall in love with her. They also have a friend, Herman, an intelligent but quiet guy.

Books

TitleYearLanguage
Sune's Summer1993Swedish
Sunes familie1997Danish
The Anderssons in Greece2012Swedish
The Anderssons Hit the Road2013Swedish
The Anderssons Rock the Mountains2014Swedish

Characters

Andersson family:
Blixt family :
Sune's classmates:
Other characters: