I love Emil i Lönneberga book:)All Astrid Lindgren´s books are great.
Emil Svensson lives with his family on a farm called Katthult. His age ranges about five and eight years old in the books. He has got fair hair and blue eyes and looks like an angel, but is not, as he also has a prodigious knack for getting into trouble. Contrary to what most people around him think, Emil is not malicious, but does not think about the consequences of his actions. He even states at one point that "you don't make up pranks, they just happen".The pranks come from kindly actions gone wrong, childish games, curiosity, bad luck and simple thoughtlessness. For example, he gives away food meant for visiting relatives to the poor because in his view they need it more. Other pranks involve his locking his father in the outhouse thoughtlessly when he was locking other doors, hoisting his willing little sister up a flag pole to see how far you could see from there (not realising how dangerous it is) or making everyone believe they are infected with typhus when playing a pretend-game with his sister. Most of the time Emil plays a prank, he escapes his choleric father's wrath by running away quickly and locking himself in a tool shed. Since the door can also be locked from the outside, his father responds by locking him in there for a while as punishment. Emil is usually embarrassed by what he has done, but it is not a severe punishment for Emil, who likes sitting in the shed and takes to carving a wooden figure during each of his stays. He eventually accumulates 369 of them, except for the one his mother buries because she claims it looks too much like the rural dean. Emil is extremely intelligent and creative, and tends to think in very unconventional ways, which the adults are more likely to misunderstand than to understand.
Emil is also very resourceful. He is very handy with any type of farm animal, especially horses. He is also brave, he saves farmhand Alfred's life when he had blood poisoning. Alfred was near death and the road to the doctor was covered in snow from a severe blizzard. Emil defied the bad weather and traveled by horse and sleigh to the doctor, thus saving Alfred's life.
In the end, Emil is said to have grown up into a responsible and resourceful man, becoming eventually the Chairman of the Municipality Council.
Emil's parents are Anton and Alma Svensson; Ida, his little sister, is a very well-behaved child, unlike him. She has tried to pull pranks like her brother since she wanted to go to the shed, which she thinks is cozy, but she failed. His father, in particular, is often angry with his son, though it has been seen many times he still likes him a lot when he does not make pranks. His mother, however, adores her boy and tends to say, "Emil is a nice little boy, and we love him just the way he is." She also writes down every bad thing Emil does, in a blue book, although, that blue book expands to several blue books. Alfred is the family's farmhand, and Lina is their maid. Alfred, who is very fond of children, is Emil's best friend, whereas Lina dislikes the boy. She is in love with Alfred and pesters him with her wish to marry him, a subject which Alfred tends to avoid.
Emil's father is portrayed as a stereotypical inhabitant of Småland - for example, he does not like spending money, to the point of being cheap. Church is very important, and the pastor is a regular visitor. Alcohol and swearing are strictly forbidden in the Svenssons' house. The books give a vivid impression of Swedish farmers' daily life in the beginning of the 20th century.
Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren Ericsson, 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a
Swedish author and
screenwriter who is the world's 25th
most translated author and has sold roughly 145 million
copies worldwide. She is best known for the
Pippi Longstocking,
Karlsson-on-the-Roof and the
Six Bullerby Children book series.
Astrid Lindgren grew up in Näs, near Vimmerby, Småland, and many of her books are based on her family and childhood memories. However, Pippi Longstocking, one of her most famous characters, was invented to please her daughter Karin, who was, at the time, ill and bed-ridden.
Lindgren was the daughter of Samuel August Ericsson and Hanna Johnsson. She had two sisters. Her brother, Gunnar Ericsson, was a member of the Swedish parliament. Upon finishing school, Lindgren took a job with the a local newspaper in Vimmerby. When she became pregnant with the chief editor's child in 1926, he proposed marriage. She demurred and moved to Stockholm, learning to become a typist and stenographer. In due time she gave birth to her son Lars in Copenhagen and left him in the care of a foster family.
Although poorly paid, she saved whatever she could and travelled as often as possible to Copenhagen to be with Lars, often just over a weekend, spending most of her time on the train back and forth. Eventually, she managed to bring Lars home, leaving him in the care of her parents until she could afford to raise him in Stockholm. In 1931 she married her boss, Sture Lindgren (1898-1952). Three years later, in 1934, Lindgren gave birth to her second child, Karin, who became a translator. The family moved in 1941 to an apartment on the Dalagatan, with a view over Vasaparken, where Astrid lived until her death.
Astrid Lindgren died in 2002, at the age of 94.
