Pippi Longstocking

Astrid Lindgren (author)

Richard Kennedy (illustrator)

Puffin Books, 1954: 175pp

ISBN: 9780140309577 

Genres: adventure, classics, fantasy, humour

Issues: friendship, identity

Welcome to Villekulla Cottage! Pippi Longstocking is nine years old and lives on her own, if you don't count Mr Nelson and her horse.

Tommy and Annika, her next-door-neighbours, watch with awe and fascination as she does everything from carry her own horse around to play tag with the policemen who seem to think that a nine-year-old needs more care than a mere monkey can provide. Having been turnupstuffing with Pippi, Tommy and Annika can verify that she is definitely not your ordinary kind of orphan. Somehow there always seems to be an adventure to be found when Pippi's involved.

This novel, well-translated, is a great deal of fun to read aloud, giving Pippi's outrageous personality room to make itself felt to the enjoyment (and hilarity) of all.