The selection du jour –

Christmas in Noisy Village

By Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland

(Just between you and I, the concept of writing about one of these books each day was appealing to me.  The first reason is that it gets me to write (a completed piece) each day.  The second was that revisiting the books sounded like fun. Now that reality has hit, some of these books are much more interesting than others. But I made a commitment and I am sticking to it. I am learning new things and hopefully you are also.)

It was with some trepidation that I looked at today’s book. “What am I going to say about this book?” I sat down and read it. It is a cute story about three families that live in three houses that are close together. Because of the number of children (there are 7 children between the three households) it is called Noisy Village.  The story tells of the Christmas rituals celebrated by these Swedish families.

Since I am not terribly (i.e. not at all) familiar with how Christmas is celebrated in Sweden, I don’t know that this is an accurate portrayal. I don’t have any reason to think that it isn’t but before I say anything I do like to know that I am being accurate. So, I could research Christmas traditions in Sweden and tell you about them. The trouble is that I wasn’t that charged up to do that research.

So what would be next? Hmmm… Astrid Lindgren wrote the famous Pippi Longstocking books.  I remember the books and I think that I liked them. I also remember seeing the Swedish film of the story. It was one of those Saturday afternoon movies. It was HORRIBLE. (I know that we all have different tastes but really, it was bad. It was actually the sort of movie that would have a cult following because it was so bad.)  But perhaps I should move past my feeling of the movie and check out Astrid Lindgren.

BINGO!

“There’s nothing in the Ten Commandments forbidding old ladies to climb trees, is there? “

I found her web site. Yes, she has been dead since 2002 but she has a web site. She is obviously a WELL LOVED author in Sweden. Okay and here is the thing, her web site is really cool. It is one of the better web sites that I have seen lately. You can go on a virtual tour of her apartment that is a better than average virtual tour. You can see her family tree (and it is in the shape of a tree) and you can read a letter from her daughter about her. It is enough (almost!) to get you to read the Pippi Longstocking  books. I suggest that you go check it out –  http://www.astridlindgren.se/en.

And how can you not want to know more about a woman who has this as her picture:

I want to be Astrid Lindgren when I grow up.  She looks like she was fun.

Thanks for reading!~