Pippi Longstocking

Tommy and Annika have always wished someone would come to live in the ramshackle house next door, and one day, someone does: Pippi Longstocking, an irrepressible nine-year-old girl with a unique way of doing things. Soon the three are inseparable friends. With a horse on the porch, a monkey on her shoulder, and no parents to tell her when to go to bed, Pippi makes everything into an adventure, whether she's climbing inside a hollow tree or taking her friends "thing-finding" around the village.

When policemen come to take Pippi away to a children's home, she convinces them that she's better off where she is. But after one day of school, she decides that academic matters such as "pluttification tables" aren't for her, either. So Pippi becomes the star of the circus and a rescuer of small children, and in her own happy home, she scrubs the floor with her feet, dances with the burglars who come to rob her, and entertains her favorite neighbors. No matter how maddening her high jinks might be to the adults around her, Pippi proves herself to be the kindest and most generous of friends.

Since it was first published 50 years ago, Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking has delighted generations of children all over the world. The author of many books for children, including two more about Pippi and her friends, Lindgren was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her contribution to international children's literature.