The Children of Noisy Village (1949)

I’m the father of a very early reader, fairly fluent at three and a half years, and for this summer’s trip to the country we decided to try and keep the bulk of picture books down by trying a chapter book for slightly older children to read out loud. He loved it, and we’ve had a grwat time snuggling up by the fire as dusk sets outside to read a chapter or two of Astrid Lindgen.

The books about Noisy Village were my favorites when I was a child, although it’s hard to understand why – on the surface at least. Not full of gently anarchy like Pippi, or the fantasy of Ronja or the Brothers Lionheart, these books tell mainly of the games and everyday life of a group of children in a very small farming village in the early 1900-eds. At a quick glance it even looks mundane, but re-reading it for the first time as an adult it still works it’s quiet magic on me, with the exciting games the kids come up with – treasure hunts, digging caves in haystacks, sneaking out at night to look for folklore creatures and so on. The only thing that peeves me now is the endless polarization of boys versus girls, but at least the girls are allowed to come out triumphant at times.

We started with this, the middle book of the three, since that was the one we happened to have at home. But we bought the other two books on our visit to the Astrid Lindgren theme park just a few weeks ago, and are now almost through with the first book as well. ( )

My all time favorite book ( )

Quaint and enjoyable. Girls and I liked reading it out loud.