I wonder whatever happened to the monkey. And the horse …

Two thoughts that occured to me when I heard that Astrid Lindgren, author of the Pippi Longstocking (or Långstrump, as she was known in Swedish) died yesterday at the age of 94. I mean, remember that horse — the one who would follow the little redhead around, with a look on his face like he knew that somehow he’d get blamed for something? How the heck did the 14-year-old daughter of a South Sea pirate get a horse? That South Seas connection means the monkey make more sense, but then I’m forced to wonder where a kid gets monkey food in Western Europe. (I was going to put “in the suburbs of London,” ‘cause I’d always thought that’s where the books were set. On reflection, though, it’s more likely to be the suburbs of Stockholm or something, right?)

Anyway, I think I enjoyed the books because of those note of utter bizarreness — the gold coins, the monkey, the horse, the coffee fetish. All in all, you gotta admit, Pippi is a kinda strange role model for librarians to be pushing on kids.

Actually, I wonder how old Pippi is now …. hey, if you know of any freckle-faced red-haired girls that swill coffee and hand out gold coins, let me know