She can lift a horse (Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren)

Member Name: zerub

Product:	Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
Date:	14/03/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, funny

Disadvantages: Heavy

This is a new edition of Astrid Lindgren's book.

It is a large hardback, and as such is quite heavy - too heavy for my 7-year-old to hold. She tends to open it out on the bed and sit next to it. It also comes in a hard slipcover, which made it nice to give and receive as a gift, but is a bit difficult for my daughter to get on and off, and so isn't being used.

Having said that, the size means that the illustrations can also be big, and the illustrations are truely lovely. They are done by Lauren Child, the author of the "Charlie and Lola" and "Clarice Bean" books. The pictures are quirky and funny and appropriate to the text - they do properly illustrate the story rather than just making it look pretty. If your child already knows Charlie and Lola then they will be drawn into this book.

The text is fabulous. It was written in 1945 but still works well today. Partly because the central character is rather odd, and does odd things, so anything that would be strange because it is old-fashioned (and translated from Swedish too) just gets lost in the general delightful strangeness of it all.

Pippi Longstocking is nine years old, lives by herself (with a horse and a monkey) and is a unique and independent individual. She does things her own way, which stirs things up in the village. She has two friends, Tommy and Annika, and she has lots of outrageous adventures. For example, "Pippi plays tag with the Police" or "Pippi has Coffee with the Ladies". The coffee one is probably more outrageous ... Children love the fact that Pippi is independent and has no adults to tell her what to do. And then of course, she is so strong that she can lift her horse!

It is very funny - it makes me laugh, as well as my daughter. It is definitely a good one to read aloud - its lovely to have a book that we both enjoy.

This edition costs about £10 and has 208 pages.

Summary: A wonderful classic with gorgeous new illustrations