On Thursday, March 12, Kristina Digman's picture book Flora's Hill won the Slangbellan ('Slingshot') Award, at a ceremony taking place at Forfattarnas Hus in Stockholm! The jury described Flora's Hill as "a tale which in the most beautiful way deals with the necessity of dreams and the fear that the dream may darken and wither". The Slangbellan prize consists of 30.000 SEK, a hand carved slingshot by the author Kalle Guettler and a diploma designed by the illustrator Per Jose Carlen.

Slangbellan, founded in 1998, is yearly awarded by the Swedish Writers' Union - the central professional organisation for writers and literary translators - to "a unique voice, a literary talent and a new exciting colleague in the field of literature for children and young adults".

Flora's Hill represents renowned picture book artist Kristina Digman's debut also as an author and has so far been published in Swedish, Danish and Finnish with further international translations on their way.

Flora's Hill has attracted much press attention, including full spread articles in the leading Swedish morning newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. "A highly original art style, inspired by the flat surfaces of medieval art", wrote Dagens Nyheter's Nisse Larsson in January, noting that Digman in just a few years has become one of Sweden's most renowned children's book illustrators and a profile of her own in the world of picture book art. Svenska Dagbladet's Kristin Hallberg called into mind the enigmatic Blue Flower of German Romanticism, the symbol of striving and yearning, "that fantastic element which - no matter how many times you read and look - makes you unsure what is dream and what is reality, what is child's play and what is symbol. Something which I find very good and promising in a first book".