While I generally love everything Astrid Lindgren has written, the Pippi books rank lowest among her books for me. Pippi (Pippilotta Viktualia Rollgardina Pfefferminz Efraimstochter Langstrumpf) is strong and wild, has a horse and a monkey and two good friends and does whatever she wants. That’s it in terms of plots. The movies are fun and entertaining – I enjoyed trying to spot the tricks they used when I was a child – for example, Pippi can lift her horse, which is very much a real horse! But as a book, it is a bit light on plot.
I think, looking back, for a book that features a south sea island, it is surprisingly light on racism. And I enjoyed the ending, where Pippi and her friends take a pill against growing up, in a very matter-of-fact way.
