Pippi Longstocking

Pippi intervenes when some bullying kids are beating up a little boy. In another scene, Pippi fires two pistols, blowing two holes in her ceiling. Toward the end of the book, Pippi displays her pistols and a sword. She also gives Tommy a pistol as a gift. Annika says she will only accept one of Pippi's pistols if it is not loaded.

Parents need to know that Swedish author Astrid Lindgren's novel Pippi Longstocking (first published in Sweden in 1945), has been a middle-grade favorite for generations. Lindgren also wrote two sequels to this original book and broke parts out into storybooks for younger readers. Pippi is without parents: Her mother is dead, and her father disappeared at sea. She believes he landed on a South Seas island and rules it as "the Cannibal King." (Later editions changed this to "King of the Natives.") Young Pippi -- along with her pet monkey and horse -- lives in a ramshackle house, where she likes to make treats for her friends. Pippi has superhuman strength, bad manners (gasp!), a good deal of weaponry, and piles of gold. She tells tall tales about her family and her own adventures as well. Readers will need to check their disbelief at the door to Villa Vilkakulla and appreciate Pippi for the fun-loving thing-finder she is. Pippi brandishes pistols and a sword in a couple of scenes, and fires the guns once (at the ceiling). Her worst transgression is wolfing down the entire pie at a dignified coffee party. Note: The trilogy has been been called out for dated, colonialist, racist stereotyping of Indigenous peoples. But the author has said she intended to show how inaccurate those stereotypes are, and in the second and third book, when Pippi goes to the South Seas, she shows Pippi gladly playing with Indigenous kids.