Our author and illustrator of the week is Lauren Child!
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Pippi Longstocking books by Astrid Lindgren, Lauren has illustrated new versions of Pippi Longstocking and Pippi Longstocking Goes Abroad. We're marking the occasion too by giving you the chance to listen to the Pippi Longstocking audiobook for FREE below. Tune in every day until Friday 18 December to hear two new instalments a day.
You can also watch a video about how Lauren creates the Pippi illustrations, discover her top three children's books and watch a video about her new picture book, The Goody.
Photo credit: Polly Borland
Listen to the Pippi Longstocking audiobook
Pippi lives in Villa Villekulla with a horse, a monkey and a big suitcase full of gold coins. The grown-ups in her village try to make Pippi behave in ways that they think a little girl should, but Pippi has other ideas. Listen to two new instalments of this story, read by Sandi Toksvig, every day until Friday 18 December.
This book is no longer available.
Watch the video
Find out more about how Lauren Child drew the Pippi Longstocking illustrations for the 75th anniversary of the Astrid Lindgren books in this video.
Lauren's recommended reads
Grimble at Christmas by Clement Freud, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Grimble is largely responsible for my becoming a writer. This is a short novel about an unusual boy and his most unusual parents preparing for Christmas, all told in a hilarious matter-of-fact way. The words are complemented with beautifully observed, very funny drawings. I read this book regularly and always feel better afterwards.
2.The Eighteenth Emergency by Betsy Byars
Mouse Fawley is a schoolboy with a plan for every eventuality. Mouse is stumped, though, when he gets on the wrong side of Marv Hammerman, the giant school bully and everyone’s worst nightmare. Brilliantly perceptive, funny and poignant, Byars’ story is now over 40 years old, yet still feels entirely contemporary. This book taught me about comedy and tragedy and how close they can be, that you might be having the worst day of your life while someone sitting right beside you on the bus can be having the best, completely unaware of your misery.
The Onion’s Great Escape by Sarah Fanelli
This book is about who we are, what’s inside of us and what makes us uniquely ourselves. It is full of thought-provoking questions that encourage children to think and write and draw. Finally, it opens out into a three-dimensional onion so is a sculpture as well.
Find out about Lauren's new book, The Goody
In this video Lauren Child chats to Sally Williams about her new book The Goody, the story of Chirton Krauss, a very good child who always does as he's told, and his sister Myrtle, who isn't so well-behaved.
Pippi Longstocking audio rights provided with the kind permission of The Astrid Lindgren Company. Copyright Astrid Lindgren, 1945 / The Astrid Lindgren Company