We all know Astrid Lindgren for her “Pippi Longstocking” books – who can forget a girl with bright orange hair in tight braids that lives on her own with her pet monkey and horse, has a trunk full of gold, and whose father is a cannibal king? Though Lindgren’s “The Children of Noisy Village” may be less known, it is just a sweetheart of a book. The book is a collection of stories written from the perspective of a 10 year old girl in Sweden. The stories are about her adventures growing up with two brothers and 3 other neighborhood children. We share with Lisa a whole year – her birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, the last day of school – and amidst the mischieviousness of the children and the humor of the stories, we get to experience traditions of the holidays as a Swedish child would. We enjoy the relationships between the children and between the children and their parents and others in their lives. There is nothing but sweetness about this book, and truly I was wishing for more stories – that it would go on. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered that there were sequels! I have yet to read them but the titles are “Christmas in Noisy Village” and “Happy Times in Noisy Village.” Also, as I was looking for a picture of the book to add to this post I discovered that a movie had been made of “The Children of Noisy Village” in 1995. It is directed by Lasse Halstrom. I haven’t seen the movie, and it might be fun – but in my opinion – always read the book first!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 12:00 am

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