The Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad listed Conny Palmkvist among their favorites, naming Four Minutes Past Midnight as one of the past year’s best children’s books in the Netherlands. Their nomination reads:

“A magic realism story that, with its poetic and reflective language, portrays how a child tries to grasp the fleeting nature of time.”

The Swedish newspaper Barometern has also included Conny Palmkvist’s work, selecting Fifty-five Meters Below the Surface one of their favorite children’s books of the year 2024. The newspaper offers the following review of the book:

“Conny Palmkvist is a master at writing with ease and humor about difficult and hard-hitting subjects.”

Conny Palmkvist’s book Four minutes past midnight has been selected as number 47 of the books on the Grote Vriendelijke 100 list, highlighting the 100 best children’s books of all time. 

The list is presented by De Grote Vriendelijke Podcast (Big Friendly Podcast), which is one of the biggest reading podcasts in the Netherlands. Together with children’s book legend Astrid Lindgren, Conny Palmkvist is the only Swedish author on the list. The winner was chosen through a vote in which over 4 000 readers voted.

The house across the yard is about to be demolished, but something is not right. Inside, a curtain suddenly flutters, one Bengt Gustav has never seen before. He enters the house even though he isn’t supposed to, and on the second floor he finds a door marked “1984.” It becomes the first in a series of time-travels, where Bengt Gustav is given the opportunity to fix everything that has gone wrong for his father through the years, all the things his father blames his alcoholism on. Only, things never get any better.

The only calm place left to Bengt Gustav is the water. Lowering himself into the bathtub, he thinks about Guillaume Néry, who for a long time held the world record in freediving. In the water, Bengt Gustav sees his lifeboat from below, the one he is in all by himself. The lifeboat that will save him when his father derails.

Bengt Gustav finally realizes that he has to let more people onto his lifeboat, right now. That will be the only way he and his father can find a way forward.

Fifty-five Meters Below the Surface is a warm, beautiful novel for middle graders about keeping your head above the surface and letting other people in.

Why do parents die? How can it even be allowed to happen? Nicolaus is still only a child and parents shouldn’t die. But on this night in July, nothing is as it should be.

Twelve-year-old Nicolaus watches over his mother’s sick bed alongside his father. It’s nighttime and all is quiet on ward thirty-four as Nicolaus is growing restless. He realizes he can’t stand to just sit around and wait for his mum to die; he needs to get away. In the elevator he sees a button that wasn’t there before. When he presses it, the elevator doors close and transport him to a very different kind of place.

It’s four minutes past midnight when he arrives to the Final station. It’s where everyone goes at some point. Or is it? Somehow, Nicolaus has stopped time two minutes before his mom will die. But what do you do if you discover that you can stop time, and even travel in time? Can you change the past – or the future?

Four Minutes Past Midnight is a unique, heartfelt, and beautiful children’s novel written in a sensitive, warm tone with a sprinkling of subtle humor.