Mardie's Adventures by Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren was a Swedish author and screenwriter. She is the world's 18th 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.
Well, let’s talk about Mardie, whose real name is Margareta Engström.Mardie is her nickname, but in certain situations, especially when looking from the adult point of view, she needed to be sternly spoken to, they called her Margareta. And from time to time this happened quite often. Mardie is always getting into mischief. Mardie was around seven years old. She had a younger sister, Elisabeth, who on the contrary, almost always was called Lisbeth. Mardie’s father was an editor at the newspaper and he was often busy with writing articles. Mardie’s mother stayed at home. We are with Mardie in the shadow of the First World War, but in a country that does not participate in the war. The family belongs to the upper class of the time, so they also have a maid, Alma, and a lady, Ida, who helps with cleaning and always comes on Fridays. The family lives in a big red house in a small town, or to be precise, just outside of the city, very close to the river; giving a potential for adventures. The girls share a room, Alma lives in the maid’s room, but the parents, except having a sleeping-room of their own, argues Mardie, live all over the house. Oh, sorry... I almost forgot... there are two additional important members in the family: a black poodle called Sasso and a cat by name Goodie. Sasso sleeps in his basket in the hall, while Goodie prefers a warm place in the front of the kitchen stove. Mardie is a nice girl, or at least her ambition is to be nice. But these tremendous ideas.... The thoughts just continuously hatching out! Mardie is a doer: she gets an idea and she wants to realize it.
In one of her adventures, Lisbeth and Mardie decide to have an 'outing' at home.Mardie then decides to parachute from the woodshed roof with an umbrella.The height of the building was not that alarming, so naturally she survives, but not without consequences. Unfortunately, it happens that Mardie acts first and thinks later. Alma, the maid, is a positive, tender, young woman. She is the one who probably best understands Mardie. She listens, helps, supports. She is not Mardie’s mother; she is an adult, “complementary” to the parents and Mardie’s dear friend. Mardie has a heart of gold; she supports her friend Abbe with friendship and with small presents. Abbe is the son of a neighbour, a couple of years older than Mardie, but instead of playing or doing home work, he has to work in order give his contribution to the family economy, Abbe bakes the most delicious buns. The visits to Abbe’s family will give Mardie an insight in a totally new world, not always so fancy, but paradoxically including moments of warmth and love. Who is Mardie written for? The adventures of the sisters for sure do inspire children. You can together with Mardie, her sister, family, and friends experience warmness in many relationships, jokes, courage, values, respect. In parallel there is a historical description of the time and a story for adults: a normal life for a child in a good family, a hard life, but not necessarily without love and humor, in a family with problems. This is a story of friendship between children from different worlds, but also between children and adults. Mardie, as well as most of Astrid Lindgren’s books, can be read aloud together; children and adults. This book will also take the children through the shadows of how life was in the First World War.
Source: http://www.shvoong.com/books/children-and-youth/1715858-mardie-books-astrid-lindgren/#ixzz2CV4BeD5h
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