Pippi Longstocking [Hardcover]

Astrid Lindgren (Author), Lauren Child (Illustrator), Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

Book Description

Pippi Longstocking is nine years old. She has just moved into Villa Villekulla where she lives all by herself with a horse, a monkey, and a big suitcase full of gold coins. The grown-ups in the village try to make Pippi behave in ways that they think a little girl should, but Pippi has other ideas. She would much rather spend her days arranging wild, exciting adventures to enjoy with her neighbours, Tommy and Annika, or entertaining everyone she meets with her outrageous stories. Pippi thinks nothing of wrestling a circus strongman, dancing a polka with burglars, or tugging a bull's tail. Generations of children have fallen in love with Pippi Longstocking. Just like Tommy and Annika, readers are instantly charmed by her warmth and sense of fun. Astrid Lindgren's children's classic first appeared in 1945. Astrid once commented, 'I write to amuse the child within me, and can only hope that other children may have some fun that way, too.' When she was growing up, Lauren Child loved Astrid Lindgren's books. She remembers: 'I discovered Pippi when I was about eight years old and found her completely inspiring.' Known and loved as the creator of some equally feisty little girls - notably Clarice Bean and Lola - Lauren has brought her own inimitable style to this beautifully-illustrated edition of Pippi Longstocking.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`Lauren Child is so good, it's exhilarating.' The Independent

About the Author

During her lifetime, Lindgren was awarded dozens of Swedish and international prizes for her writing, among them the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen medal in 1958: widely considered the ultimate accolade for an author of children's books. Lauren Child was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2001 for 'I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato' and the Nestle Smarties Gold Award in 2002 for 'That Pesky Rat'.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford Childrens; Gift ed edition (September 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192782401
• ISBN-13: 978-0192782403
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Illustrations are cute, writing has lost some charm, March 13, 2010

By 

Arthur Bradley "Arthur Bradley" (Eastern USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pippi Longstocking (Paperback)

I recently read a short Pippi story to my kids that was from the original translation. It had magic and charm to the words - odd little phrases that made Pippi seem like a unique quirky child who had traveled the seven seas. That prompted me to order this colorful volume. Unfortunately, this translation lacks that same magic of words. After reading about 20 pages, my kids were yawning and uninterested. I plan to return this version and try the "Adventures of Pippi Longstocking" which is reported to be written with the original translation.

I should say however that my kids enjoyed the illustrations. They are drawn by the same person who draws the Charlie and Lola kids shows - very cute.

Please be kind enough to indicate if reviews are helpful.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh-Faced Pippi as Delightful as the Original, January 6, 2008

By 

Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pippi Longstocking (Paperback)

Over sixty years ago, Astrid Lindgren wrote stories about Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump for her daughter. In 1945, the book Pippi Longstocking was published in Sweden. Five years later, it was published in the USA. In 2007, one hundred years after Lindgren was born, Viking released a new edition of Pippi Longstocking, with a new translation by Tiina Nunnally and new illustrations by Lauren Child.

I really enjoyed this edition. I liked the original novels by Astrid Lindgren when I was younger, and I haven't revisited them in decades, so this was a nice piece of escapism on a Sunday morning. I appreciate the work that went into this book.

I have read many of Lauren Child's books and have come to embrace her style. She uses pieces and patches to create her collages and pictures, an interesting combination of photography and illustration. I think the illustrations in this edition are adorable AND match the text.

This edition also gets kudos for its typesetting. Most of it is straightforward, but every so often - just often enough without being too often - there's a sentence or two that runs backwards or sideways, or there's a bold word or two. This too is Child's style. In this particular book, one of my favorite restructured lines is a sentence about Mr. Nilsson's tail that is actually shaped like a tail. That makes me happy because I like emblematic verse. (You can thank Charles Dodgson for that, because I was first exposed to emblematic verse in his book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.)

Translating is never easy, especially when it comes to artistic endeavors such as stories, lyrics, and poems, which are dependent upon language, word choices, and meter. I salute Tiina Nunnally for her translation, which truly preserves the original story.

Kudos again to Tiina Nunnally for translating the original text and to Viking for giving readers a new edition of Pippi to read, to share, and to treasure. If Viking/Nunnally/Child offer editions of the other Pippi books, I will certainly read those as well.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pictures are nice; new translation isn't, September 2, 2009

By 

Matthew Miller (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pippi Longstocking (Paperback)

I bought this edition to read to my young daughters because I was enchanted by the pictures, and hey, it said "sparkling new translation". Unfortunately, it loses some of the charm of the older one. I showed it to some Swedish friends of ours, and they agreed -- specifically, the original book itself is a bit old and uses dated Swedish phrasing, so the older English translation seemed more fitting. (Imagine if, say, The Wind in the Willows were updated to sparkling new English!)

Worse, the words haven't been updated just to be more modern -- they're also sanitized. The glaring example throughout is that Pippi's father is no longer King of the Cannibals -- he's now king of the _natives_. That's not just a translation, it's an editorial change.

I recommend getting The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking instead. The translation is better, and it contains all of the stories, not just the first book.