A hilarious story that’s easy to read but impossible to put down.

Birtingur’s parents are on some kind of parenting mission and decide to take away his phone for the whole summer. They even ban him from using the computer.

This. Is. RIDICULOUS!

Then they grin and say he can just buy his own phone if it’s really that terrible (which it is)! But surely it can’t be that hard to save up for a phone?! Birtingur sells his stuff, collects cans, tells a few lies… and pulls a few tricks… but then he gets caught! By his classmates Aldís and Birta… and that’s when things really start to spiral out of control!

“Gunnar Helgason tackles smartphone use in his latest book, The Phone-Free Summer. It is, of course, a well-chosen topic, one of the key issues of our time when it comes to children’s well-being. The protagonist, Birtingur, finds himself in dire straits when his parents impose a phone ban for the entire summer. He is also forbidden from using the computer, and, to make matters worse, his friends are not allowed to give him access to their devices either. The only way out of this predicament is to earn money to buy a phone himself, and Birtingur takes matters into his own hands.
Birtingur is imaginative, but his ideas about how best to make money vary greatly in quality. He nevertheless puts every single one of them into action immediately—and lands himself in astonishing trouble. Some of the episodes are priceless, and even the seriously minded critic caught themselves laughing out loud in places.
The illustrations in the book are by Elias Runi, and all of them are highly entertaining. The most original is a page divided into four panels that visually depict the sequence of events described in the text—simple yet effective.
Gunnar has at times addressed heavier subject matter in his books, often with greater impact. The story of Birtingur is, for the most part, light and amusing, even though various complications arise and there is certainly a lesson to be drawn from the tale. Gunnar makes deliberate reference to Candide by Voltaire, and the substance of the final chapter will feel familiar [to his readers]. The author also deserves praise for not forgetting to show that adults can be just as addicted to their phones as children. The apparent aim was to write an engaging and entertaining book—and that aim is very much achieved.“
RB, MORGUNBLADID DAILY