If your name is Petra, you are bound to stop when you see this kind of a headline in newspaper (Kauppalehti 5.1.2010). The subtitle "Web based Petra game combines ideology with business" was even more interesting. I did not know of these Petra children books before, but now that I found them I am enchanted.

"Petra is a sprightly girl who finds her way into adventures in books of the Petra series. Her adventures are tales about respecting other cultures. At the same time the books help parents to form deep, meaningful interaction with their children."

The author and creator of Petra books, Eevamaria Halttunen, got the idea for these books when reading bedtime stories to her children. She was concerned over the one-sided image that news portray of other cultures, so she came up with Petra, a girl who introduces other cultures to children in a fun way. There are currently four Petra books

• Petra on the paths of Buddha
• Petra dances
• Petra and the northern lights
• ...and of course: Petra discovers Petra

 
Image from Dramaforum

Now Petra is expanding her adventures into a browser based game. In the beginning, Petra's planet will include four countries, Sami land (Lapland), Senegal, Jordania and Sri Lanka. In each country, children will be playing local games both alone and with others.

The game is developed by an Oulu based compnany Ludocraft. Their manager has a nice comment in the newspaper: "Usually, in computer games conflicts are solved by using violence. With Petra's Planet, we need to come up with completely different problem solving methods".