Pippi Goes On Board

What fun we had with Pippi Goes on Board! The kids are sure I wrote the Pippi books, even though I have told them it is some other Astrid. They can keep believing if they want...

The Story: Pippi is back to her adventures living in Villa Villekula. By now, the town is used to her, and they are not as shocked about her antics. She buys pounds of candy for all the kids in town, and does likewise in the toystore. She goes to the fair and causes some trouble. She arranges a shipwreck with Tommy and Annika for fun. Nothing is surprising, particularly, though, until she gets an unexpected visitor - her long lost father! For once, Pippi's tall tales are true. He really did survive falling overboard, and became a king of the Cannibals on Kurrekurredutt Island. Now, he wants Pippi to go with him, to be a Cannibal Princess. Tommy and Annika, are distraught. Will Pippi really leave Villa Villekulla forever?

The Good: Pippi is hilarious. She tells the best tall tales, and that always makes Evalina chuckle. There are some teaching moments - as I mentioned when we read the first Pippi book. "Isn't Pippi funny? DON'T do what Pippi does!" The writing is challenging in places for her, but easy enough for her to read. I read most of it, but she read about 2-3 paragraphs per page (some of them super long). All in all, it was a great great read.

The Bad: Some of it is kind of sad. Evalina didn't quite understand the idea of Pippi moving away forever, though she was excited about the idea of Pippi being a Cannibal Princess. Pippi is pretty naughty and disregards rules with abandon. Since Evalina is at a point when following rules is sometimes.... challenging.... it's hard to teach her that Pippi's hilarious antics are not ok in the real world.

The Verdict: Bad behavior aside, you can't go wrong with Pippi. It's wonderful. Evalina loves it. Philip loves picking out the "Pippi"s on the pages. The stories are fun and delightful. We can't wait to finish the next book, so we can watch the Swedish language movies we have, and then maybe find the Swedish books eventually!