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

Great thread. We're going through an Emil fad with lots of acting out based on 1970s DVDs of shooting imaginary birds in trees, climbing on roofs of play houses, wondering about werewolves and generally wreaking havoc. I'd forgotten about that part where Emil gets himself and the chickens really drunk on fermented cherries and brings his piglet along to a special meeting to make sobriety vows together. Priceless. And the narrator says 'In those days lots of people used to have problems with drinking too much. In fact, they still do.' Do they still make children's books and films as frank as this?

As you can probably tell I'm a passionate AL fan. Thorbjorn Egner is another Scandinavian favourite - the Robbers of Cardamon Town is a great book for kids aged 5 and up.

Equally, I bet none of you have ever read Anne-Cath Vestly, only three books in translation from being probably as famous as Astrid Lindgren. Anne-Cath Vestly

Her authorship produced 54 great childrens books, about Aurora, Knerten, Ole Alexander Filebombombom, and about Grandma and the 8 children (title roughly translated).

I love Anne-Cath Vestly! In fact, Grandma and the 8 children are a current favourite of ours. Are you Scandowegian, by any chance?

good guess. but shhhh.

You are so completely Norwegian - busted!

oh we love anne cath vestly too
there's more than 3 of hers in translation - all the aurora books for starters
they are very funny

That is encouraging to know! I grew up on Knerten and Aurora, along with Emil, and Carlson on the roof, etc.

BTW Emil and the Detectives was not written by Astrid L - he seems to be the better known Emil in the UK and I've heard (German) people rave about him, but the AL Emil lives in Lonneberga and is extremely naughty and has a dad with anger management issues .

Very impressed to find Alf Prøysen has been translated and read abroad - he's another literary childhood hero from up north.

i.e. Emil 1 and Emil 2

The Bullerby books are called Noisy Village in the UK. And the Brothers Lionheart is one of the best children's books ever written IMHO .

Sad to say but I have never read anything by astrid......

Emil and the detectives was one of my favourite books as a kid though

Emil and the Detectives was written by Erich Kaestner, also a very good author btw.

I think the penny is finally dropping about the AL Emil - he's called Michel in German!

erm, more modern stuff, fran. I'm a bit out of touch with 6 yr old stuff but things that always come to mind are:

The Black Queen, Michael Morpurgo
Patrick the Party Hater, E Smith

These two are/were in the Young Corgi range. E Smith is a fab writer, check her out. She has also written When Mum Threw out the TV (or something similar but that one is for slightly older than 6 I'd say).

The Josie SMith series by Magdalen Nabb is lovely - social drama, all emotions, great every day stories. Can be hard to find in print now as it's a little old.

The Grk series is fun, Joshua Doder.

Cressida Cowell has written about Hiccup and some dragon things too. A writer worth checking out.

oh thanks pointy
as i say i don't think i just blether on about the old days for the sake of it, but i do find it's easier to pick up books written in 70s that are entertaining, gentle and well written
we found josie smith was ok
that's not that modern though surely?

no, it's not that modern. I said it was a bit old now. But I do find people often just recommend books from their own childhood or moan about the Fairy books rather than finding out about all the great childrne's authors who are coming up with stories today.

What about 'Master detective Kalle Blomqvist', we used to role play Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta every summer in my childhood, fabulous books, also by AL.
I didn't say that all of the modern children's authors are boring, I said most of them are, sadly, to me at least. Have spent countless hours in bookshops reading kids books in vain hope of finding something that I'd love my boys to read one day. I'd be more that open to suggestions and very thankful if someone could recommend some fantastic authors though!
Will check out the ones mentioned here.

I grew up with Lotta - loved it. Not looked at the book in years and years but remember the lovely pictures and a chapter called 'everything goes wrong' sums up life sometimes! Must get hold of it for my DD

I'm sorry if I gave the impression I thought all modern children's books are rubbish, far from it!

But there is a lot of dross about, and a lot of good stuff has been allowed to fall by the wayside.

And UK publishers seem more resistant to seeking out foreign authors.

Chicken House, who publish Cornelia Funke, is an honourable exception, as is the company now publishing Goscinny's Petit Nicolas series in translation.

I agree there is good modern stuff around (dd currently reading Tom Trueheart - seems lovely), but the world of Astrid Lindgren is just so lovely and imaginative and it's a shame that she is not more widely known here. And as said before Pippi is not necessarily her best book!

Sorry for confusing the issue by attributing 'Emil and the detectives' to AL!

Thanks for all the recommendations - many of which I had never heard of despite being a very avid reader as a child.

redpyjamas - when you said the DVDs of Pippi and Emil were great do you mean the old 60's or 70's ones or are there newer versions?
We have the Swedish TV series of Pippi from the 60's or 70's. (Dubbed in Spanish, doesn't seem to be avaliable in English at present) I know there was a film after that...

I am going to look up some of these titles for ds1,. He is 6 but an advanced reader and we are finding difficulty getting approriate books at a suitable level

has "The Tomten" already been mentioned? Mine all love it, it's great for preschoolers/toddlers (Tomte Tummetott in German).

Madita is called Mardie in English and isn't anywhere near as good as the German version (according to dd1, age 9, who has read both). Apparently it's abbreviated and the style isn't great.

I adore Astrid Lindgren's books - she has written really super ones for teenagers, too. Fat chance of finding them in English though .

never read pippi but the bullerbys and a coupel of the others were great

which is the first karlson one?