While this is a very famous story, it's not in my view a good children's book, at least by modern standards. It's quite slow and rather boring, spending far more time on Swedish geography, history, flora, fauna, folktales, and life during the 1800s and early 1900s than it on its purported story. If you plan to read this story to kids, find a greatly edited book that contains a lot of illustrations and maps and read them that. The original 2-volume set is better read by adults who can put up with its antique style and its lack of illustrations and maps. So I'd recommend it, but with reservations when it comes to kids. ( )

In 1902 the National Teachers Association of Sweden commissioned Selma Lagerlöf to write a geography book for students. She spent several years studying bird and animal life before writing her internationally famous book about the boy who travels across Sweden with a flock of wild geese.

Nils is a naughty child, and his parents despair over his cruelty, caprice, and laziness. One day, when his parents are at church, Nils captures a tomten (an elf-like creature that looks after the welfare of the farm) and threatens it. As punishment, the tomten turns Nils into one as well. Nils runs outside and discovers he can understand the speech of the birds and animals. When a flock of wild geese fly overhead, a tame gander flies after them, carrying Nils with him.

Thus begins the adventures of Nils as he flies north to Lappland with the geese on their summer migration. His adventures are accompanied by descriptions of the Swedish countryside, often interlaced with legend and tales that make it easy, even for a non-Swede such as myself, to remember. In addition to the topography, Lagerlöf includes information about the habits of animals, the types of plants that grow in each habitat, and information about the types of industry common to each area. The result is a wonderful mix of fact and fiction that reads like adventure but imparts a tremendous amount of information. And Nils returns home a wiser and much nicer little boy.

Originally published as two books, I read them back to back, as the English translation was published as one volume. ( )

Sweden's most beloved adventurer, Nils is a disobedient child shrunken to the height of a gnome. He slowly befriends various native animals and flies around Sweden on a goose. He grows more mature as he copes with death and suffering, learning to help as he can.

You'll learn more about Sweden's plants and animals than you bargained for. Martens are pretty cute though. ( )

After a brief encounter with an elf, a rude young boy named Nils is turned into a miniature version of himself who can now communicate with animals.

This was an interesting book, to say the least. For starters, I was surprised by how lengthy this picture book is and how much text was crammed in per page. I noticed this with another picture book translated from Swedish into English and am wondering if perhaps that's just how picture books are made in Scandinavian countries. (Just surmising, I have no real expertise on this subject.) It is broken down into chapters, but every page has illustrations like a picture book. It is more likely for older elementary school students because the attention span will just not be there with younger children, unless of course it is read just a chapter or two at a time.

I'm guessing there's a moral in here somewhere about being a good person and a loyal friend, but it's kind of hard to tell at times. The adventures are more like mishaps than edge-of-your-seat thrills, although I find that's fairly common in many children's books with that title or subtitle. Still, there wasn't much in here that really felt exciting or noteworthy in any way. I read it a week ago and I've already pretty much forgotten most of it.

The illustrations are done with a limited palette of blues, reds, and some browns. The really neat aspect was every so often there are these stencil-cut pages. (I really don't know how else to describe them.) There will be a page spread with just an illustration of a scenic backdrop and in between them is a page that allows you to see through to the backdrop either way. This stencil-cut page will show the outline of a bear, birds, trees, etc. It was quite lovely and my niece and I both agreed it was an awesome addition to the book.

Oddly enough, the character 'cheat sheet' and table of contents were at the very end of the book. So was a map of Sweden, which highlighted the journey the geese took as they migrated. That was pretty neat for showing the geographic context. This will probably be especially useful for those who are unfamiliar with Sweden's various regions. ( )

Great to read again after 45 years! Surprisingly modern ecological and nostalgic theme. ( )