FOR YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28370, 31 August 1957, Page 3

FOR YOUNG READERS

Funny books for children are rare, but PIPPI GOES ABROAD by Astrid Lindgren (Oxford University Press) is quite hilarious. Dear Pippilotta Provisions Gaberdina Dandeliona Ephraimsdaughter Longstocking. Though she is not quite ten, Pippi is a girl of unusual resource and great strength. She lives by herself in Villekula Cottage with her horse and Mr Nelson her monkey. Her neighbours. Tommy and Annika are devoted to her, for when Pippi goes shopping, joins a school picnic or stages a shipwreck, everything turns out to be tar more exciting than it would have been without her. The climax of the story is the return of her father, the Cannibal King, on a visit, and very sad it is when Pippi prepares to leave to become a Cannibal Princess. This is only a passing worry. Pippi’s rules for living are out of bounds by the ordinary standards of social behaviour. But she is no juvenile delinquent and herein lies Astrid Lindgren’s success. Though Pippi flaunts all the rules—she does not attend school, she goes to bed when she pleases and wears just what she likes—she is a very moral child. She is kind to animals and vastly generous to all her friends. She declares that she is as rich as a troll because her father has left her a chest full of gold coins. Her childlike literalness and her whole way of life are bound to provide a very satisfying catharsis for all children whose lives are inevitably bound by restraints. Long live Pippi Longstocking. The black and white drawings are done by Richard Kennedy and the story is translated by Marianne Turner.