to think it's a tragedy that one of the world's greatest children's authors is so little known in the UK?

[emkana]

I'm talking about Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking. While the latter is obv known here she has written tons of other books and they are all amazing.

Lotta, Happy Times in Noisy Village, Karlson on the Roof for younger children.

Ronia the Robber's daughter, The Brothers Lionheart, Mio my Son for older children.

I urge you all to explore her work

www.amazon.co.uk/astrid-lindgren/s/qid=1240596155/ref=sr_pg_2?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=astrid%20lindgren &rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aastrid%20lindgren&page=1

Yes, Madicken is Madita in German.

I'm currently reading it to dd.

She is a God.
My Mum recently turfed out my old bedroom - I'm 41 this year, I left at 17 -and brought my old books here for my children. My DD adore Pippi and loved the old tatty book.
What I did notice though was how small the print used to be. These days it would be seen as offputting for kids.

I agree with 'tragedy', there are so few truly great children's authors out there, most, yes, MOST books nowadays are simply dull, uninspiring and leave kids indifferent. Some are outright terrible:-(
We need to encourage children to love reading, what better way than introducing them to a wonderful, imaginative, fun, exiting and utterly enchanting world of Astrid Lindgren?

We love her in our house too. Bullerby children, Lotta, Emil and Pippi. Must read some others too.
We like watching the dvds of Pippi and Emil too. They are absolutely brilliantly made, IMO.

I adored the Pippi books as a child, and loved reading them to DS when he was younger! {smile}

Edith Unnerstad is another wonderful Swedish children's author. Her books were available in translation during the 60's when I was a child, but are are now out of print in the UK. "The Saucepan Journey" was one of my favourite books. Does anyone else remember her stories?

I just knew this would be about Astrid. She wrote my favourite kids' book: Ronia The Robbers' Daughter. I've read it dozens of times and it's the only book I still have from my childhood.

Ah... Pippi was one of my favourite books as a child.

I read the Pippi Longstocking books while growing up in Australia and loved them. Thank you for reminding me of them! I shall put them on my list of "great books to buy for DD".

I love, love LOVE the Bullerby children. I still read them now as an adult and am sure that is the reason why I am now doing a Swedish evening class.

I just re-read The Bullerby Children!

I loved AL as a child - I used to scour jumble sales for her books as some of them were out of print even then. Karlsson on the Roof is fab! And Emil in his shed, making little wooden men...

We've got 'Lotta'. I remember being given 'Karlson on the roof' for a birthday present aged around 8 or 9. Also remember reading 'Emil the detective' to my brothers and sister on a camping holiday...
I bought 'Ronia the robber's daughter' last time we were in the UK.

But I wouldn't have been able to tell you the name of the author of any of those books off the top of my head if you'd asked me before I decided to buy the Pippi books and googled it...

Today I went to a bookshop to buy a present for ds's friend, and asked for The Bullerby children and they stopped publishing it . (I'm in Italy)

Message withdrawn

Alf Proysen wrote the Mrs Pepperpot stories. I think they were reprinted as one chunky paperback recently but they aren't too hard to find secondhand.

It is a great pity Astrid Lindgren is so neglected in the UK. 'Madicken' was published in the UK under the title 'Mardie's Adventures' in the 1980s as were a few other Lindgrens.

Mardie is very much loved by my DD, and when her brother is more than usually annoying she threatens to put up a notice saying: "Buterful littel slave for sale."

Other Swedish children's books which seem to have disappeared are Maria Gripe's "Josephine", "Hugo and Josephine" and "Josephine". It is quite depressing to see the shelves of children's bookshops filled with Rainbow Fairy/Magic Kitten rubbish instead.

There are loads of excellent childrne's books these days. You just need to do a little looking.

I don't hold with the argument that says childrne's books of the 70s were fabulous and today they are rubbish.

Agree pointy.

I never really liked the Pippi stories and dd's not keen so far. However, I will have a look Lindgren's other books.

Lotta is possibly my all time favourite book from my childhood and my dd (13) has my copy of it as one of her "never give this away mum" treasured possessions .

All my children love Pippi too as she is such a brilliant character and we bought the audio books too so they now hold memories of l-o-n-g trips up to Scotland with the children all silently listening and then fits of giggles at her antics.

Ooh thank you for this thread, emkana!

We had the Bullerby children, but no others, and I cant understand why, as my children love Ronja, and Mio mein Mio.

I have to confess, though - having discovered Pippi as an adult....I cant stand her! she merely inspires me with the desire to smack her!!

By the way, has the film of Vorstadtkrokodile reached the UK? We saw it last week - it is brilliant.

I loved Pippi as a child...and I still have my copy of, and regularly read, Ronia the Robbers daughter! It is a shame we don't see any of these books in the bookshops anymore - I will definitely be getting them for our boys when they are old enough.

you can get them on amazon no probs

Also the book people had a set of the Eml books v cheap recently.

tbh I much prefer Bullerby and Madicken to Pippi

pointy tell us some for 6 year olds then
i do struggle to find much good modern stuff, and i am not prone to knee jerking i don't think

I agree about Edith Unnerstad - I love the Saucepan Journey and the Spettecake holiday.

And as for Margaret Mahy... The only writer who has successfully written for everyone from birth to 16, and won awards for all those ages, and yet you rarely see her mentioned