Tom's Christmas Fish

‘The illustrations are beautiful, and this is a great book for learning about the traditions of other cultures.’–Juno magazine‘To the bustling streets of Prague we go for ‘Tom’s Christmas Fish’, an endearing story of a boy and his grandfather and the live freshwater carp they procure, like ‘everyone in the whole country’, for their Christmas dinner. Rita Törnqvist-Verschuur’s snug watercolors quickly situate us amid the pastel buildings and stone bridges of the Czech capital […] Marit Törnqvist’s emotionally astute story will acquaint readers ages 4-9 with European traditions – such as making carp-shaped cookies – that may be new to them.’– Wall Street Journal

Rita Törnqvist-Verschuur was born in Amsterdam in 1935, and studied Swedish language and literature. She lived in Sweden for ten years with her husband and three children, including her daughter Marit. Rita worked as a translator, and translated many books by Astrid Lindgren, before writing her own books for children and adults. She wrote eight volumes of memoirs, starting with her experiences as a child during the Second World War. Her books Tadpoles on the Piano and The Old Musician were translated into English.

Marit Törnqvist was born in 1964 in Uppsala, Sweden and divides her time between the Netherlands and Sweden. She studied illustration at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 2011 she was awarded a Golden Plaque from the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava, one of the most prestigious children’s illustration awards. In 2024, Marit was the winner of the esteemed Johannes Vermeer Award, the Dutch state prize for the arts, the first time the award was presented to a specialist in children’s book illustration.