Millions of children and adults all over the world love these characters and feel completely at home in Villa Villekulla, Cherry Tree Valley, the woodshed, Junedale and on Seacrow Island. All of these worlds are the creations of Astrid Lindgren – the most read children’s book author in the world.
The origins of a story
Astrid Anna Emilia was born on 14 November 1907 on Näs farm, just on the outskirts of Vimmerby town. Astrid was the second child of four. She and her siblings, together with the cowman’s children and the children from the vicarage next door, were the real Children of Noisy Village. The story of their games has now spread all over the world.
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Astrid Lindgren went to school in Vimmerby, so the settings she created are born from both the countryside and the small town. Early in her life, she moved to Stockholm. That’s how a certain Karlsson would eventually come to fly around Vasastan, where Astrid herself lived, and a lonely boy named Bo Vilhelm Olsson would find himself sat dreaming on a a bench in Tegnérlunden, which she walked past every day on her way to work.
The power of imagination
But these stories can take place anywhere where there are children who read and believe in the miracle of imagination. The the Land of Faraway and the Land of Twilight are accessible to children throughout the world. It is now more than twenty years since Astrid Lindgren passed away, but her stories live on. Not least here in Astrid Lindgren’s World, where playfulness and child-like thought are perhaps most important.
Read more about Astrid Lindgren