A family who wrote a book together. Now that might not be something you hear (or read) about every day. But that’s nonetheless the case here.


Two daughters and their dad have over the course of many years written an old-fashioned book together. A comedy. One that will make you laugh, irrespective of your age. We guarantee it and state our good name and reputation on this. (Okay, okay … Our “name and reputation” may not be the highest-value currency depending on who you ask, but it’s what this somewhat strange, unhinged, bad-humor family brings to the table.)


Over the course of several years, the dad of this family (Jesper) used to tell bedtime stories to the youngest daughter, Arendse, when she was little.


At the beginning, it was stories read aloud from children’s books. But … one evening, he told a story that he made up on-the-spot. A story about a boy named “Smirtz.” We cannot fully remember why he was given that name, but likely it’s because he spoke with a German accent that made Arendse laugh uncontrollably. So, of course, the dad “doubled down” on that as anyone with children likely knows: the sound of your child laughing is one of the most heartwarming feelings you can ever experience.


And the next evening, Arendse wanted another Smirtz story.

And then another one.

And then another one after that.

And that’s essentially how The Stories of Smirtz began.


Who is “Smirtz” and How We Came to Love Him

So, as you see, the funny thing is that Smirtz was never originally intended to become “a real book character.” He just… appeared one evening.


Smirtz is a cheerful, nice, lovable, adventure-loving, but also catastrophically confused, 11-year-old boy who somehow always ended up in absurd situations together with his friends. His heart is always in the right place and he loves to help others, but to say he has “good judgement” would be a spectacular exaggeration.


And the world around him just grew and grew with each story told, with friends and family members.


Soon, an entire core cast of recurring characters started appearing:

  • Heinrich: Smirtz’s best friend, who is also kindhearted and shares Smirtz’s love of a good adventure, but also completely lacks the ability to recognize terrible ideas before carrying them out with great enthusiasm.
  • Tinka: a smart, tough, strong, quick-witted classmate: She can best be described as the “brain of the operation,” although that’s not saying much.
  • Eric: another classmate who’s very rich and always manages to work that into conversations. Often by conveying his dad’s “words of wisdom” on the importance of being rich and successful. That being said, Eric is never mean and is a highly cherished member of the “crazy quartet” with Smirtz, Heinrich, and Tinka. Also, who’s to say that Eric doesn’t undergo a transformation himself as the stories evolve; the answer might surprise you. (Well, that’s a lie… You can likely figure out what Eric learns along the way… But we promise it’s a hilarious learning curve.)
  • Smirtz’s mom is called … ”Smirtz Mom.” (yes, yes… not very original. But it can’t all be “Shakespeare standard” when you’re sitting there on the bed making stories up by the seat of your pants.) She’s a scientist and also much into “healthy cooking,” often including eel and cabbage… in combination.
  • Smirtz’s dad is called …. (surprise) … “Smirtz Dad.” And he does not always agree with his wife regarding what constitutes a “healthy cuisine.”
  • The children’s eccentric teacher: Erling. He loves his class and they love him. And he has a fondness for role-playing (you know, dressing up as knights, wizards, and orcs kind of stuff), and he’s not always able to separate the real world from his make-believe role-playing character. Especially when Smirtz and his friends escalate a situation to full-blown mayhem. Then Erling’s coping mechanism is to lose all sense of reality and assume his “knightly character” to rescue the children, yet often only escalating an already absurd situation into complete chaos. (Which might also be why he’s so loved by his students.)
  • Smirtz’s talking hamster: Benny is also a key character. (Yes, we have a talking hamster. But don’t worry. It will make sense in the story.) Benny is a smart-mouthed rodent who doesn’t mind calling those around him out. For example, when insinuating Smirtz might have a crush on Tinka.


Several other innocent people show up and experience the “force of nature” that is Smirtz and his friends. Many of them do not find these encounters particularly pleasant (to say the least), but that didn’t stop the dad from having them keep coming back in the stories (as well as in the book), much to the joy of Arendse and her dad… Less so, for the characters themselves.


So, at its core, “The Stories of Smirtz” are a comedy adventure book about: friendship, smart kids, slow adults, and complete and utter chaos.


Over time, the stories also became more elaborate and interconnected.


And while all this is highly structured and literary now in the book … it absolutely wasn’t back then.


The original stories were created by a parent sitting in a dark room trying desperately to invent “just one final Smirtz story” before bedtime. (Parents reading this probably already know that children possess a supernatural ability to request “one more story” approximately 17 times in a row.)


Yet everyone in this household ended up loving Smirtz and his friends.


When Did We Realize This Could Become an Actual Book?

That realization happened slowly … Very slowly.


In fact, for quite a while, nobody really thought of the Smirtz stories as anything more than our own little funny universe.


But then something unexpected happened.


As Arendse got older, she became more interested in reading herself before bed than having stories read to her. Then, after a couple of years, she suddenly started writing some of the Smirtz stories down in Danish.


That was probably the first real turning point.


Because once stories begin existing on paper instead of only in our imagination… they suddenly start feeling strangely real.


And shortly after that, Esther (the big sister) joined in on the project, as well as the dad.


From then on, the stories expanded further, the characters and stories evolved, plus our humor really found its place. Especially through our unhinged narrator that also suddenly appeared. A narrator who most of the time does his job by simply telling the stories, but occasionally interrupts and addresses the reader directly to provide educational explanations (yes, this book will actually also provide school-worthy information about classic plays and stuff). However, we could not resist sometimes having the narrator go off on a rant or crack down on the aforementioned cringe adult behavior. (This is always written in the same special typography to ensure that it’s clear when it’s the narrator’s direct address.)


We also started to sneak in references (Easter eggs) in the stories to our favorite movies, series, and books. Also, the humor became increasingly layered, with especially Esther finding examples that highlighted the paradoxical, ironic, and (quote Esther) “cringe” behavior of adults.


Somewhere along the way, this transformed from: “fun little bedtime stories” into: “Wait… are we accidentally writing an actual book?”


And since, apparently, nobody in this family understands the importance of “stopping while you’re ahead,” we decided to literally go literal and turn it into a book.


A book that actually aims to make readers of all ages laugh, kids, young adults AND actual adults. (Or rather, people who based on their birth certificates are considered “adults” but where their minds don’t match their age. Something we’ve dived deeper into in another blog post called: “Calling all Nerdy Parents!”.)


That’s also why we think that “The Stories of Smirtz” is not only perfect for young people to read themselves, but also for families to read together, which we’ve written about here in this post: “The Perfect Book for Family Reading Time or for Family Book Club”.


Because yes… this book was very much written for imaginative families.


Why Did We Translate the Book into English?

After finishing the stories in Danish around mid-2024, we eventually reached a slightly terrifying conclusion: Our humor worked better in English.


Not just “a little bit better.” But genuinely A LOT better.

  • some jokes suddenly became sharper,
  • the narrator became funnier,
  • the dialogue became more dynamic,
  • the slightly chaotic energy running through the stories became better, and
  • the strange mix of adventure, irony, and absurdity suddenly felt more… complete.


So naturally, instead of choosing the easy option and keeping the book in Danish… we decided to spend almost two more years translating and refining the entire thing in English.


A decision that caused:

  • laughter,
  • excitement,
  • creative breakthroughs,
  • but also the kind of family disagreements usually associated with international peace negotiations.

We’ll probably write a much deeper post about that later as the translation process deserves its own story.


Why Does the Book Feel Slightly Old-School?

One thing we realized early was that we wanted The Stories of Smirtz to feel like an actual “sit down and read” kind of book.


So, while there are a few illustrations — all drawn by hand by Arendse — we intentionally kept the book mostly illustration-free.


Why?


Because we loved the idea that readers themselves would imagine the bizarre characters, the mayhem, and the increasingly questionable decisions made by Smirtz and his friends.


Also, this entire project is “AI-free,” meaning we’ve made, written, and translated the stories ourselves, which is also why it’s taken so many years to make. Arendse started the writing process around 2022 and the translation began circa 2024, which was also when we started our Instagram account “@family_writing_a_book” that you can find a link to here: “Contact Us”.


So, to go back to the illustrations, that’s also why there aren’t that many. They were all hand-drawn. (And there is a limit to how much “child labor” you can force a child to do, when they’re also busy living their best lives with ballet, school, and friends.)


And that basically goes for all of us and why this project has taken so many years as we’ve tried to simultaneously balance school, work, everyday life,


If you want, then you can read more about us here: “About Us”.


Want to Explore the Smirtz Universe Further?

Now, while we hope we did an ok job of kind of explaining our book in this post, it’s also abundantly clear that is very hard to explain it and the humor it offers.


You can therefore find a free sample chapter on this website, so you can read it for yourself and determine whether you “vibe” (another Esther phrase) with us and Smirtz. You can find the free sample chapter here: “Sample Chapter”.


There, you’ll also find the book’s Table of Contents, as we think the story headings – and the subsection headings within the chapters – give a pretty good idea of our humor, and some even contain nice “Easter egg” references.


Finally, you can find more information about buying the book, including signing up to receive another free sample chapter, here: “Buy the Book”.


That’s all for now folks. We hope you’ll surf around this site, read the sample chapter, our other blogs, and get in touch with us if you want to.


Bye!


About This Blog

This blog is written by the family behind The Stories of Smirtz: a funny family-written book created by two daughters and their dad.

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