Book Review: “Pippi on the Run” by Astrid Lindgren (1971)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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This is the fourth and final Pippi Longstocking book that I have available to me at my libraries, which is slightly disappointing. According to Book Notification, Astrid Lindgren wrote tons of Pippi stories in Swedish. Could it be that so few have been translated?

Hey, college student, are you looking for a calling in life? Learn Swedish and translate all of Astrid Lindgren’s untranslated books into English. The English-speaking world will thank you…and you’ll have a blast doing it.

This illustrated book was just 63 pages (13 short chapters) long, so I read it to my kids in a single sitting. It was bite-sized and entertaining enough to read all at once, and I’d probably do it again, next time the kids have friends over.

This reminds me: if your kids ever have sleepovers, don’t forego your normal family routines just because you have guests in the home. If you normally have devotions together, do them still, with friends welcomed to join. I don’t stop reading to my kids just because their pals are in the room. I’ve got two short story collections (Tales from Dust River Gulch and More Tales from Dust River Gulch) set aside for those very nights, and we all get a kick out of reading them together. Your kids will learn that family routines are important and they’re not exclusive, nothing to be embarrassed about and something to enjoy even with friends.

This story follows Pippi, Tommy, and Annika who decide to run away from home and experience adventures throughout the countryside. They meet some interesting characters, but the focus is mostly on the adventures themselves—like going over a waterfall in barrel or swimming in a ditch or walking a tightrope. Of course, Pippi Longstocking is the best at everything, and her super-hero personality is what makes these stories so imaginative. It helps answer kids’ daydreaming questions of “What if?” in a lively, humorous way. Adults should get a kick out of them too: I do, and I’m pretty sure I’m a normal adult!

Following our read of this final book, we decided to watch the 1988 film, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. The movie quality and acting were horrendous (well, the child actors were all right; the adults were worse than bad). The plot was an amalgam of chapters from the four books we’ve read, and it was partly a musical. All told, it was a terrible film, and I don’t regard it as helpful to see some of these events—so colorful and gay in our imaginations—accomplished in live-action on the TV. If I ever catch wind of another Pippi Longstocking video, I’ll steer my kids’ attention away. Best left in the pages of book and on the screen of one’s imagination.

©2024 E.T.