Perhaps, every child and every adult is familiar with the works of the next author from our wonderful shelf of UNESCO creative cities. Books and film adaptations of Astrid Lindgren's works are strongly associated with the image of childhood, with memories of summer holidays and little pranks. In one of Astrid's books, "The Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof," there are these lines: "People dream about all sorts of nonsense. They dream of apartments, refrigerators, house shoes, and that's all, everyone, everyone dreams of having their own cars! They forgot about the stars, poor things! Today we invite you to plunge into the bright and colorful world created by the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren with us.

The author of our childhood: Astrid Lindgren and what do we know about her?

Astrid Lindgren is a Swedish children's writer who surprisingly became the most "Russian" of all foreign children's writers. Glory came to her after the publication of a book about the Kid and his funny friend Carlson. The first book from this famous trilogy was published in 1955 in Sweden, and 2 years later in the USSR. It is noteworthy that no matter how popular the story was in the homeland of the writer, in Russia the adventures of the big sweet tooth Carlson and Malysh fell in love with everyone even faster!

So in just a few years, Astrid Lindgren acquired the title of children's writer No. 1, became a national treasure and the best friend of every child. She herself was partly the hero of her stories: she is very similar to them, just as always ready for adventure and just as open to the world. Surprising fact: Astrid received an incredibly huge number of letters and did not miss a single one, she answered everyone and everyone!

However, behind any success story there is always a long and thorny path, and for Astrid everything did not happen all at once.

Astrid's first character was Pippi Longstocking, who originated in fairy tales that Lindgren made up and told to her daughter Karin. The girl was sick, she had pneumonia. According to the established tradition, the writer read fairy tales to her daughter every evening and she liked them so much that she decided to ask her to tell her about a strange fairy-tale character. So Karin Lindgren came up with the name of the heroine - Pippi Longstocking, and Astrid wrote not just a fairy tale, but a whole work.

The story about the naughty Peppa reflected the discussions that were relevant at that time about the correct upbringing of children: should one adhere to liberal education and respect the child without restricting his freedom, or should he remain on the side of the classical principle of education with limited freedom? Astrid Lindgren was more inclined towards the liberal version, thanks to this fact, the character of Pippi Longstocking was formed.

When the evening stories grew into a whole story, Astrid combined them and gave the manuscript to her daughter. At that moment, the idea came to her that her stories could come to the liking not only of her children, but also of someone else. From that moment on, Astrid firmly decided to release her books. A duplicate of the same manuscript was submitted to one of the largest Swedish publishers, Bonnierkoncernen.

The publishing house did not appreciate the innovative style of the writer and, after much deliberation, refused.

Interesting fact:

In 1944, the newly organized publishing house Raben and Sjogren organized a competition for the best book for girls. The publishing house promised to print the three best works, the story of Astrid Lindgren "Britt-Marie pours out her soul" then took second place. And the very next year, Raben and Sjögren offered Astrid a permanent job as an editor of children's literature, where she worked until 1970.

"Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof"

Many associate their childhood with this exciting and fascinating story that brings up not only children, but also their parents. Largely thanks to the film adaptation familiar to all of us.

Interesting fact:

Almost all of Astrid Lindgren's works have been filmed, and some even several times.

Did you know that the main character of this work, the Kid, actually has a name? The boy's name was Svante, and the Kid was called him for simplicity. At the time of the reader's acquaintance with the hero, Svanta is seven years old and he feels lonely. His parents are so passionate about work and affairs that they often do not devote time to their son. Fortunately, Svante has a friend, Carlson, who lives on the roof. Carlson is an example of endless positivity and energy, he knows a lot about the city and is willing to share this knowledge with his friend.

Carlson is a character who is constantly striving for vigorous activity and satisfaction of his needs. Despite the share of narcissism present in him, it would be completely wrong to consider him a negative character, because he is characterized by nobility and the ability to come to the aid of anyone, even a stranger. And at the same time, its shortcomings are educational in nature. After all, we often do not notice them in ourselves until we see them in someone else, that is, we do not look at ourselves from the outside.

Interesting fact:

There is a theory that Svante's parents were never destined to see his friend, Carlson. So this mischievous person would remain only an imaginary friend, which would encourage parents to devote more time to their son. However, then the continuation of the story would have been completely different and we would not have encountered such comic scenes about advertising and the press, about television and about children's detective stories.

But let theories and facts remain theories and facts, and we invite you to get to know history as it is, closer with the help of a book. Finding any book in our time has become very simple, there are a whole lot of options: take a walk to the library, go to the bookstore and please yourself with a new copy of your home book collection or open one of the book marketplaces, or you can also borrow from a friend. In any case, you will have a great opportunity to plunge into the colorful world of fun adventures, and at the same time compare the book with the film adaptation familiar from childhood. Did the creators of the cartoon miss something, or are there no differences between the book and the screen version? Let's discuss!