As a child I was crazy about Pippi Longstocking – everything about her was intriguing and attractive.
Here was a girl who was wild and daring, and I don’t remember there being many books about wild and daring girls when I was young.
She lives in her very own house, all alone but for a monkey and a horse. She has no parents, no brothers, no sisters and absolutely no one to tell her what to do. She is incredibly strong and quite able to lift a horse – which she does every day. She has a limitless supply of gold coins, which she casually keeps in a chest in her house. But most of all,
Pippi has a rare quality I very much envied then and still envy now: she absolutely doesn’t care what the rest of the world thinks of her, she is truly a free spirit. Pippi inspired me in my childhood and has been an important influence on my writing. Now I have been lucky enough to illustrate this new edition, she has also become part of my work,
Swedish author Astrid Lindgren and illustrator Lauren Child, aged 9.
Pippi Longstocking was written by the famous Swedish writer, Astrid Lindgren, in 1945. Although over 60 years since it was first published it still feels fresh and modern, and highly original. She is a wonderful writer, whose many books have sold more than 145 million copies throughout the world. I can’t help feeling Clarice Bean is the sort of girl who would read Pippi Longstocking and be inspired.
