Easy Finnish literature

All people have the right to read: to go on adventures, to travel to new worlds, to get information and experience things on the pages of a book. Easy language literature opens books for groups of readers for whom standard language literature is too difficult or impossible to read.

Regardless, anyone can pick up an Easy language book which can be of tremendous use to those who are not accustomed to reading or do not have the energy for it.

Easy language books make reading fun

Easy language books are written in Easy Language, which makes them easier to read. They are also shorter than standard books. Easy language books can be identified by the SELKO symbol, an arrow shaped like the letter S. The SELKO symbol is granted by the working group for Easy language literature.

Easy language literature can be read just for fun or entertainment, but it can also be easily used in Finnish language studies or in describing the Finnish culture and in inspiring discussion and receiving information.

There are two types of Easy language books. Some Easy language books are written directly in Easy Language while some are adapted from standard language. For example, there is an Easy Language adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Books published in Easy Language include detective stories, sci-fi, fantasy, romance novels, classics, horror stories and modern literature. The topics of Easy language non-fiction books include e.g. climate change, mushrooms, space, robots and dogs.

In Finland, non-fiction Easy language books are published in both Finnish and Swedish. We promote the publication of Easy language books and support their publishers with Easy language literature discretionary government grants delegated to us by the Ministry of Education and Culture. We organise events and campaigns that promote Easy language literature and publish information on Easy language books on our website and social media. However, we do not publish Easy language books ourselves.

Where can I find Easy language books?

Easy language books are available in libraries, online stores, publishers’ online stores and even in some book stores. The following is a partial listing of resources for Easy language books in Finland:

Seesam Prize

The prize is granted every other year for achievements in the promotion of Easy language literature, to, for example writers, illustrators, translators, researchers or publishers.

The Seesam Prize is awarded by the Working Group of Easy language Literature. The prize has been awarded since 1992.

See a list of the winners on the Finnish-language pages of our website.

View Easy language books published in Finland in the database on Easy language literature (in Finnish).
Read more about state support for Easy language and other accessible literature (in Finnish).

Read our latest Easy language book brochure (in Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish).

Picture: Markus Itkonen