Annika Thor

Annika Thor is a Swedish novelist, screenwriter, and former librarian who writes for children and older readers. Raised in a Jewish family in Gothenburg, she has often explored displacement, belonging, friendship, and the experience of young refugees. The Lily Pond is the second novel in her four-book Steiner sisters sequence, following A Faraway Island and preceding Deep Sea and Open Sea. Linda Schenck translated the book from Swedish; its first American edition came from Delacorte Press in 2011. The story moves Stephie Steiner from her foster family's island to school in Gothenburg a year after she and her younger sister escaped German-occupied Vienna. Her adjustment to city life, first love, financial dependence, and continuing fear for her parents unfold against wartime Sweden. The Lily Pond received a Mildred L. Batchelder Honor and was named an ALA notable children's book. Thor's background in film and theatre complements the quartet's sharply observed scenes, while the linked volumes let Stephie's growth and the sisters' refugee experience develop over several years.