The main characters of the original series.
Reuhurinteen ala-aste ("Reuhurinne Elementary School") is a Finnish children's book series created by Tuula Kallioniemi. The series is about daily life at the titular elementary school, which is so small that all students from first to sixth grade fit in the same class.
From 2011 onwards, the series has gained a Sequel Series Reuhurinteen alakoulu, which focuses on the school a few years after the original series.
Tropes:
- Always Identical Twins: Sipuli and Tupuli look the exact same. This causes problems for Kippari, who has a crush on one of them, but isn't sure which one.
- Book and Switch: One story has Iso-Nestori read a book about karate during class by hiding it behind his religion textbook.
- Class Trip: Many of the stories are about class trips, including to the forest, to Tampere, and to watch a play of Uncle Fedya, His Dog, and His Cat.
- Collector of the Strange: One story has Rosita tell the class about her hobby of collecting pencil shavings. Vatanen gets upset that Rosita sharpened away the pencil he gave her, and pays her back by using up the eraser she gave him, and ends up thinking about collecting eraser dust.
- Disappeared Dad: Iso-Nestori and Pikku-Nestori's father is dead and not mentioned until the fourth book, unlike their mother who is the school's lunch lady and an assistant teacher in the sequels.
- Does Not Like Spam: Kippari hates it when the school serves liver casserole, and once attempts to skip school on a liver casserole day.
- Faked Kidnapping: One story has Ryyni pretend she's kidnapped and send a ransom note for Ötö where she demands his necklace he got for his birthday. Ötö notices that the note says "if you tell the police, you won't see me ever again" only after she's been "rescued".
- Forged Message: After Vatanen upsets Rosita by telling her that the pear she just ate had a snake in it, Vippe and Ötö write both of them a note addressed from the other to make them happy again.
- Full-Name Basis: The kids always call their teacher by his full name, Aapeli Käki. (In Finland, kids often call teachers by their names.)
- Grossout Fakeout: In one story, the classroom appears to be full of rabbit droppings, but in the end it turns out that it's just dog food that Ryyni spilled all over the classroom.
- Height Angst: In one story, Ötö reads a tabloid in a school paper complaining about all cute boys being short, and thinks it was written by Ryyni, the girl he likes. He then attempts to make himself taller by having the other boys pull his legs and head.
- Hiccup Hijinks: One story is about Aapeli Käki having hiccups. People always tell him to drink a glass of water, which he always does. When he goes to the bathroom, Turpo-Tuupa scares him, which ends the hiccups.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Kippari attempts to give Tupuli one by giving her a blue hair clip. But it turns out that Sipuli happens to have an identical one.
- I Got a Rock: One story has Vippe and Ötö try to earn money by Virvonta
, a Finnish Easter tradition similar to trick-or-treating. They end up with just wrapped sugar cubes and cat sausages because Pikku-Nestori had taken all the best stuff before them. - Jerk Jock: Kaiku. There's some stories where he brags about his sport skills, annoying the other kids.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Turpo-Tuupa often makes fun of and pranks the other kids, but he's not mean. Once he even wins the award for the most polite kid of the week, because he commits various good deeds during the week and doesn't gloat about them.
- Late for School: One story focuses on how Kamu is terrified of being late at school, because he's afraid the teacher will ask him a ton of embarrassing questions about it.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Aapeli Käki's grandma is described as ridiculously small multiple times.
- Mistaken for Object of Affection: In one story, Rosita leaves a note for Vatanen to come to the gym equipment locker with the intention to kiss him. The note ended up for the wrong person and she accidentally kisses Pikku-Nestori instead.
- Mistaken for Thief:
- In the debut story of Aapeli Käki's grandma, Sipuli and Tupuli suspect that she has kidnapped Aapeli Käki and go spy on her, when she actually is taking care of him because he's sick.
- In one story, Vippe and Ötö think that the library car's driver is about to steal the car, and hide in the car to try to stop it.
- Not What It Looks Like: In one story, Vippe and Ötö are making a wooden stool as a gift for Aapeli Käki. Kaiku hears them and thinks they're smoking and fighting with knives.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The kids all call each other by nicknames, with only the teacher calling them by their real names.
- Performance Anxiety: In one story, Tihru is about to sing in a kids' singing competition, but ends up too afraid to do it. In the end, she puts a performance just for her class.
- Picture Day: In one story, Tihru loses a tooth on picture day, and her friends make her a fake tooth out of chewing gum.
- Reunion Revenge: When the kid who bullied Iso-Nestori when the latter was on first grade comes to visit the school again, Iso-Nestori tries to take revenge on him by locking him in a closet in the music class.
- School Play:
- One story is about a play the kids put on, "Punakutri ja Miljoonäärimummo" ("Red-Locks and the Millionaire Grandma"), which is an amalgamation of various fairy tales. Unlike how the trope usually plays, the kids seem to be good at acting and the audience loves it.
- In another story, Turpo-Tuupa puts on an one-person play where he plays a detective, which is a lot more Stylistic Suck than the previous play, and is interrupted by Vippe scaring Turpo-Tuupa.
- Secret Pet Plot: One story is about Rosita secretly bringing a kitten to school and trying to hide it from the others.
- Shout-Out: Kippari's real name is Kalle. The Finnish name for Popeye is Kippari-Kalle.
- Slice of Life: The books don't really have overarching plots, and are just about everyday happenings at the school.
- Standing in the Hall: Aapeli Käki often punishes his students by sending them out of class. This once results in several of them running away to watch a movie the Nestoris got from home.
- Students Playing Matchmaker: In one story, the girls notice that Aapeli Käki and school nurse Lintunen seem to have a crush on each other, and send Lintunen roses made of toilet paper, saying that they were from Käki. Sure enough, the two are married in the sequel series.
- Sudden Name Change:
- In the original series, Aapeli Käki's grandma is named Hilma, but in the Sequel Series, her name is Martta.
- The first book states that Kamu's real name is Kalevi Musikka, but in a later story, he's called Kai. This confusion is likely because Kaiku's real name is Kai Kurki.
- Theme Twin Naming: Sipuli and Tupuli. Though those are only nicknames, their real names being Sirpa and Tuulia.
- Two-Teacher School: Or rather, One-Teacher School. Aapeli Käki is the only teacher.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The last story in the fourth book is about Tihru finding a small star decoration, thinking it's the star that her late great grandmother lives in, and trying to get it back on the sky, and it's played more seriously than most stories in the series.
