The performance Sverre Scrap and Nothing is described as a story about love between two people of the same sex. The cultural school bag describes the play as a wild experience, where author Harald Maxmillian Stoltenberg both reads, tells and plays different characters. In addition, he shows selected illustrations from the book.
The play is about Sverre Skrot, who receives an unexpected offer from his neighbor with special abilities: to bring his man-doll to life. But it requires Sverre to choose to follow his heart over his head. When the doll comes to life, a romance develops between the two, which ends in a wedding. On the way there, they encounter challenges that mirror our time – a president who builds walls and a corrupt constable they must outwit to achieve their goal.
Clearly queer message in children's book
Even though the book Sverre Scrap and Nothing is available in bookstores across the country, it is not clear that the story is largely about homosexuality. In an interview with the queer magazine Glance However, Stoltenberg elaborates on what he wants to convey:
– Sverre loves to collect things and make new things out of scrap. Unfortunately, his mother is a nag whose only goal is for him to marry a woman who can clean up and dance flamenco, Stoltenberg tells Look Online.
Sverre's mother is so concerned that he must find a woman that she plans to bring a lady to him from the South. This makes Sverre react, and he decides to build himself a lady out of scrap. As love develops between Sverre and the man-doll Ingenting, it creates conflict with Sverre's mother, who wants everything to fit into the "right boxes.".
LGBT team building for the youngest
Harald Maxmillian Stoltenberg, who is also a deacon and psychotherapist, has previously stated that he wants to write stories from the heart rather than create something constructed. At the same time, he does not hide the fact that the book has a clearly queer message.
– I don't tell the children that "Sverre Skrot becomes gay", because I believe they should be able to experience and read the book in the direction they want, says Stoltenberg.
He emphasizes that the story is also about the right of gays to marry in church. In the book, Sverre takes Ingenting to church to get married, but the priest refuses, saying he «can’t marry football faces.» This prompts Sverre’s mother to defend Ingenting, and she points out that the priest himself has a «carrot head.».
The book contains several references to queer themes. For example, a double-page spread features a large rainbow, which for children will simply be a rainbow, while for adults it can be interpreted as clear LGBT symbolism.
Stoltenberg believes that love between people of the same sex is in short supply in Norwegian children's literature, and that LGBT themes are still severely underrepresented in books for the youngest.
– Approximately 300 Norwegian children's books are published a year, but the proportion with LGBT themes can be counted on one hand. That is why it is incredibly important to create a book that shows children of early school age how diverse the world and love are, he says.
Stoltenberg is now traveling to Norwegian schools and libraries to read from the book and meet the children. With its clearly queer profile and message about gender and love, the performance raises questions about how early children should be introduced to this theme – and who should make that decision.
BOM gender confusion of school children
Stoltenberg is also behind the gender-confused character, Bom, which is used in school books from 1-5. Trinn by Cappelen-Dam forlag. The picture shows that Bom is gender-confused and the entire school book from 4th grade Social Studies. Bom is teased by his classmates because, despite being a boy, he wears a dress and is unsure of his gender. The character Bom has also been adapted into a film, starring Harald Maxmillian Stoltenberg, as part of the elementary school material.
In Cappelen Damm's teaching materials, the students are introduced to Bom's "aunt Kaia" in the video below – a biological man who now identifies as a woman.
Stoltenberg appears as an LGBT activist with a clear agenda to introduce the youngest schoolchildren to topics related to gender diversity and sexuality. Watch the video and judge for yourself.
In the 2024/2025 school year, grades 1-4 in the municipalities of Bjørnafjorden, Samanger, Kvam, Ullensvang, Eidfjord and Ulvik will be visited by Harald Maxmillian Stoltenberg.