Astrid Lindgren by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara illustrated by Linzie Hunter

 

"At an early age Astrid fell in love with stories. Growing up in nature, she lived, just as a wild, young girl should, exploring the forest, playing games with her siblings and making mischief. Pippi Longstocking emerged from these experiences and, today, reminds us of the joy of childhood."

Some interesting things about Astrid:

• Her name, before marriage to Sture Lindgren, was Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson.
• Her first story was published when she was just thirteen.
• Astrid had two children her son Lars a daughter named Karin (my Aunt - Anne Lindgren - named her daughter Karin too)
• Pippi Longstocking was published in 1945.
• Astrid won two Hans Christian Andersen (IBBY) medals.
• There is a planet named 3204 Lindgren!

Have you discovered the Little People Big Dreams series?  There are so many titles. 

"At the beginning the series was first published in Spain as Pequeña & GRANDE by Alba Editorial, and now Little People, BIG DREAMS is translated into more than twenty languages. Maria Isabel likes to think the success of the series relies on the fact that children love to read real stories about other children achieving great things. It gives them the strength and the courage to believe in themselves and dream BIG. As The Independent once said: “What a cool way to drift off to sleep.” Now with more than 3.9 million copies sold worldwide, the series continues to grow and expand, introducing children around the world to artists, trailblazers, and dreamers who each made a big impact in the world around them."

Here are a set of questions to use with Astrid Lindgren and here is a video where you can see the new titles to be released later this year. Read an interview with Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara.

Little People Big Dreams are an excellent and important series of books which are easy to read, colourful, inspirational and accessible for very young readers. Every school library should try to add as many books from this series as their budget will allow. Some new titles to look for include: Iris Apfel; Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Michelle Obama; and Marilyn Monroe. There are so many titles in this series so I picked out a few that interest me:

I am keen to explore the different illustrators who have contributed to this series. Australian illustrator Sophie Beer worked in the book about Elton John. Here are web sites for some of the illustrators:

Zafouko Yamamoto (Greece)

Natascha Rosenberg (Germany)

Beatrice Cerocchi (Italy)

Maxine Lee-Mackie (UK)

Sveta Dorosheva (Ukraine living in Israel)