Most Beloved Sister & Mirabelle – a review

For Christmas 2020 my wonderful friend gifted me a set of Swedish classic short stories, so of course my first read of 2021 had to be one of these! Coming in at 19 pages long this book comprises of two short stories by an author best known for Pippi Longstockings. I, however, had never read anything from her before so this was a lovely introduction to her writing! I ended up giving this book 3 stars (out of 5)

Both of these stories were a little bit odd, but definitely still enjoyable!

Most Beloved Sister follows a young girl who seems to have an imaginary sister who lives under a bush in her garden. She plays with her every day, and not only is this girl her sister but she’s also a monarch of this world under the bush. I don’t want to say anything else as, with it being such a short story anything else would spoil it! It seems to be a tale on growing up and on parental love, which was quite an interesting one to read.

Mirabelle is a story about an unusual doll owned by a little girl. Again, any more would spoil it! This one seems to be more of a focus on encouraging imagination and childish wonder, and was another sweet but odd story!

This has definitely made me interested in reading more of Lindgren’s long works, I want to see what she is able to do when she has more space to flesh out characters, develop a larger plot and how she concludes her stories!

Mentally Visiting the Swiss Mountains

I’ve read this story many times before, but not in a long while. I re-read it this January as part of the Booktube ReReadathon (as I mentioned here) ran by Alex Black Reads and Abi Mack Reads. The prompt for this month was a translated work, and Heidi was originally published in German by a Swiss author, Johanna Spyri.

I loved this when I first read it as a child, it really resonated with the kind of child that I was who loved being outdoors in nature and didn’t fit in with “well behaved” society. Re-reading it again as an adult I found it incredibly sweet, and I’m glad that I first read it as a child. Despite it being from the 1880s it has, in my opinion, aged very well and I loved the feeling of being free within the Swiss countryside and in the mountains.

I can’t find faults with the aim of this book, it’s a simple read which just aims to get children to appreciate the outdoors whilst not vilifying those who stay indoors for various reasons. I will definitely encourage children in my future to pick this book up and hopefully nurture a love of the outdoors within them.

Have you read Heidi? Do/did you read classic children’s books? Honestly, I still read kids classics and regular kids books and I love them!

Anne of Green Gables, a review

I am so glad that I pressed myself into picking up this book. I have never intended on reading it and actually bought it to donate to my old school (I’ve given them other books instead, don’t worry!), however, as it sat there on my shelf I felt drawn to it somehow. I decided on a whim that I was going to read it… and then it sat on my shelves for another few months! Okay don’t judge me with that, we all do it (I hope), but then the BookTubeAThon came around and I decided that it was going on my tbr, and I was going to read it. And read it I did.

I was enjoying myself with the beginning, I liked our introduction to Anne and watching her wait anxiously to see whether she would be accepted into this family. However, once it was concluded that Anne would stay and once she had settled into her new life I started to be a little bored with the story. Although there were little events here and there as Anne got into mischief, there wasn’t exactly much happening in the novel and those little bits I found more annoying than anything else. Maybe I’m becoming a grumpy adult?

Once Anne turned 13 however, I re-fell in love with the story, absorbing it so quickly until the very end. The section of the book was paced well, with interesting plot points and I was fully engrossed in Anne’s world and the events going on around her. This is the section that made me fall in love with this book, this is the section that made me want to give the book 5/5*! I had to be reasonable and remember that I didn’t enjoy the middle of the book, hence why my rating of the novel is actually 4/5* but I am now incredibly invested in Anne’s life and I will definitely be continuing with the story at some point!

I definitely recommend picking this children’s classic up, and I also recommend pushing through to the end if it isn’t appealing to you at the beginning. You might find a new favourite is in your hands.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Finally, at the age of 21, I’ve read Alice in Wonderland! (Took me long enough!) To be perfectly honest I probably wouldn’t have gotten round to reading this book when I did if I hadn’t been watching a lot of Hailey in Bookland on YouTube, who is absolutely obsessed with this book! I had gone home to visit family and saw this book on my shelf, and I decided that I was going to get through it before I went back to University!

I really ended up enjoying this book! The confusing usage of language put me off when I was younger (with books like Heidi, The Secret Garden and Water Babies appealing to me more out of children’s classics) but as an adult, it was much easier to comprehend what was going on and definitely enjoyable to lose all meaning to the most common of phrases and send myself into a fantasy world. If you’ve been putting this classic off as you believe you’re too old for it now, go and grab it! No one is ever too old to read a well-written children’s book!

I was finally able to watch the animated Disney film now I knew the story and it was such a fun little film! It is definitely a fun story and I can 100% see why it is so popular now I have finally immersed myself in the world.