The Red Bird [Hardcover]

Astrid Lindgren (Author), Marit TRnqvist (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

From the creator of Pippi Longstocking comes a LITTLE MATCH GIRL for our times, a book of surpassing compassion and beauty.

Astrid Lindgren is beloved worldwide for her stories of Pippi Longstocking, the cheerful little girl with upside-down braids and no parents. With THE RED BIRD, Lindgren turns her attention to two very different orphans, Matthew and Anna, who are sent to live with the stern farmer in Myra. The work is hard; the food is scarce; the days are cold. But then Anna and Matthew follow the red bird to Sunnymead, where they find hope, sunshine, and in the end, freedom. This extraordinary story of hope and redemption, with exquisite illustrations by Marit Tornqvist, is certain to become a modern classic.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4–A lengthy tale of two orphans who are adopted by a stern farmer. Matthew and Anna's gray lives are full of work and despair. They look forward to winter when they can attend school, but it fails to provide the joy they seek. As they begin to lose all hope, the children are saved by a red bird that leads them to a magical world where there is a mother to care for them and they can play all day in the sun. Törnqvist's painterly illustrations are beautifully crafted and add emotional impact to the text. They are hauntingly dark when the children are in despair and bright lime-green when the siblings find their safe haven. Some readers may be disturbed by Anna's comments about death, "There is no fun in my life, and I don't want to live till spring." Occasionally the translation is awkward: "…he took the children to make themselves useful." Lindgren's fans will be willing to overlook these shortcomings; for others, it is a secondary purchase.–Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT
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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books; Tra edition (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439627966
• ISBN-13: 978-0439627962
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #989,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) created the character of Pippi Longstocking to entertain her daughter. Lindgren was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her contribution to international children's literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very sad, but very moving, January 22, 2006

By 

Purple Strawberry (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Bird (Hardcover)

This book is by the author of Pippi Longstocking, but it is nothing like the Pippi books except in that it focuses on children and the importance of play and freedom in childrens' lives. While Pippi had an unlimited amount of both, Matthew and Anna have none. They are oprhans who are taken in to live with a farmer who doesn't care for them but uses them as farm labor and barely feeds or clothes them enough for their survival. The world is bleak to these children, both in the illustrations and in their own descriptions it is colorless, "as gray as mice", until they discover a magical bird and a magical door that takes them to a children's paradise where they can play and be cared for as much as they want and need.

I choked up and almost couldn't finish reading this book the first time I read it aloud to my children. It IS a VERY sad book, to be sure, and it is NOT a bedtime story or a fun, casual read. It is a deeply serious and moving story that will remind the adult reader of the classic story of The Little Match Girl, except that in The Red Bird the story does not imply that the children die. A child's view will be that they simply stayed in a magical world, while anyone acquainted with The Little Match Girl story will see the parallels quite clearly. It would make a good discussion book to read alongside The Little Match Girl as well as in any discussion of global poverty and how it affects children. (Two days before reading this my oldest daughter watched a news story about children freezing and starving to death in the mountains of Pakistan in earthquake-ravaged villages and it was a timely discussion for us.) But it is certainly necessary to assess your child's age and emotional maturity before considering reading this book. Because of the extremely serious subject matter (including some of Anna's comments about expecting to die, and later wanting to die) as well as the length of the book, I'd say the 4-8 age range given for this book is too low, and it is more appropriate for something like 6-10, again depending on maturity.

2.0 out of 5 stars Bleak, even with the happy ending, December 5, 2009

By 

R. Weber (Montclair NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Bird (Hardcover)

I picked up this book in haste at the library, after seeing it was by Astrid Lindgren and a quick thumb through to see if it was an appropriate length for my five year old. The story was incredibly dismal, despite the "happy" ending with it's implied heavenly afterlife. The use of repetition in the book was far more suitable for very young children, however the darkness of the subject was not. Fans of this story may not appreciate me saying so, but I found Anna's melodramatic proclamations of "surely I will die" throughout the book to be unnerving. My five year old did not enjoy this story.

5.0 out of 5 stars a favorite, September 17, 2009

By 

LH (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Bird (Hardcover)

It's true that the text is a little tedious in its repetition, but I find the imagery and story captivating and hauntingly beautiful. It's also currently one of my eight-year-old daughter's favorite books; we are going on an extended road trip and it will be one of the few books coming with us.