Book Report: Pippi går om bord

9. Astrid Lindgren, Pippi går om bord (1957) (4/24/19)

For the fourth installment in my friend Thelma's and my "Norwegian torture" series, we chose a classic, originally Swedish, kids' book, Pippi Goes on Board. Pippi is a larger-than-life redhead (her two braids are braided so tight they stick straight out) who lives all alone in Villa Villekulla (I love to say that out loud) with her horse and her monkey, Mr. Nilsson. No parents. Though there is a father somewhere, who was apparently washed out to sea and has become king of the cannibals. So she says.

There are also a pair of neighbor kids who love to hang with Pippi. Tommy and Annika. Together they have adventures: going shopping (for candy: seventy-two pounds' worth), going to a school picnic in the Monsters' Forest, going to the fair, getting shipwrecked for a couple of days. Havoc reigns, generally and gleefully.

Pippi is a life force, so no wonder Tommy and Annika—and pretty much everyone—love her so. She is constantly lifting that poor horse up over her head (she is the world's strongest girl). And coming up with wild, fun ideas, that she proceeds to carry out. Would that life were so loose and free in actuality.

At the end, her cannibal king father appears—he actually exists! he's not a figment of Pippi's boisterous imagination!—and it seems she'll be leaving Villa Villekulla for good.

Oh, but . . . maybe not.

Here's the Norwegian description of the book, all of which I actually understand (it's a miracle):

I Villa Villekulla bor verdens sterkeste jente. Hun heter Pippi Langstrømpe og bor der alene sammen med hesten sin og Herr Nilsson, Pippis apekatt.

 I huset ved siden av bor Tommy og Annika, og jammen har det blitt mye morsommere etter at de ble kjent med Pippi!
 I denne boka kan du blant annet lese om Pippi som kjøper hele atten kilo karameller, eller når hun tar med Tommy og Annika til en øde øy og er skipbrudden i to dager.

I liked this book. Next up, we'll be trying to navigate Jo Nesbø's first Harry Hole mystery, set in Australia. It's long, so give us a year.