''Thorbjørn Egners lesebøker'' () were a series of sixteen readers for

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

written by Norwegian author Thorbjørn Egner. Egner spent 25 years working on the seriesconsisting of collected literature as well as his own stories and illustrationsand they were published in 1950–1972. The books were intended for children aged 8–15, which at the time corresponded to grades 2nd–9th. Among the recurring characters was the young boy Ola-Ola, who grew up on a farm on the Norwegian countryside, but later moved to the city and had to adapt to a new life. Other stories took place in far-away lands, reminiscent of the environment in Egner's celebrated '' When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town''. There was also a selection of songs and poems in between the stories. The books took over the role held for decades by Nordahl Rolfsen's readers in the Norwegian educational system. Rolfsen's books were published in 1892–1895, and had been the standard works since, but starting in the 1950s, Egner's books took over this position. Egner himself considered the series to be the ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

'' of his collected works. In 1972, howeverthe year in which the last book in the series was publishedthe educational program of Norwegian

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s was altered. The new scheme largely abandoned the use of basic readers in the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

. As a result, Egner's textbooks were rendered virtually obsolete as educational tools. The books remain an important part of the Norwegian cultural heritage, being considered children's classics, and some of them have been reprinted more recently.

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Further reading