Pippi Longstocking was born from imaginary stories that the renowned Swedish children’s writer Astrid Lindgren told her children and which she wrote down and published as a book in 1945. Pippi Longstocking is still loved today all around the world and her adventures have been published in many languages, as well as adapted as movies, animation, and musicals.
Pippi Longstocking is the strongest girl in the world, able to lift an entire horse, and well known for her mismatched stockings, carrot-colored hair, and freckles. Her best friends are a monkey called Mr. Nilsson, her pet horse Little Old Man, and the neighbour’s children – a brother and sister called Tommy and Annika.
In honour of Lindgren’s work that greatly emphasized the importance of children’s literature and picture books, the Swedish government established a children’s and youth literature award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in 2002, the year she passed away.