Astrid
Lindgren is the Swedish author whose Pippi Longstocking books (and films
featuring the redheaded child of strength and ingenuity) have captured children’s
hearts all over the world, first released this tale of an orphan wanting a home
and his vagabond friend in Sweden in 1956.
Life in the Vaesterhaga Orphanage was a drudgery for
nine-year-old Rasmus. Digging potatoes and pulling nettles was not the life he
desired. Like many a nine-year-old boy, he wanted to play and climb trees, and
enjoy life. The only fond memory he had related to the time he had an ear-ache
and the directress of the orphanage (the stern, unyielding Miss Hawk) had held
him comfortingly for but a moment.
When a rich grocer and his wife come to adopt a child,
everything goes wrong for Rasmus from the moment he begins to clean up for the
visit. It really didn’t matter. Parents wanted girls with curls, not boys with
straight hair. And so Rasmus decided to run away.
On his first morning out of the orphanage, Rasmus met and
befriended Oscar—a tramp extraordinaire, who played his accordion and sang for
food or money as he traveled far and wide over God’s green earth. No longer
lonely on his journey, Rasmus began to learn of life from his new friend, “Paradise
Oscar, God’s best friend.” What follows is an adventurous journey filled with
crime, intrigue, happiness and sadness as Oscar tries to help Rasmus find the
perfect parents who would adopt him—a rich, handsome couple who want a boy with
straight hair and not a girl with curls.
They meet with gangsters and sheriffs, with maids and rich
ladies. And eventually Rasmus finds the perfect home—but you’ll have to read
the book to find out about it.
I like the tenor of this children’s book because it reads
like a children’s book ought to. It is filled with lessons on honesty and
honor, happiness and struggle, with some fun along the way. This book will
please readers of all ages and will leave the reader with a satisfied feeling
that life can be good and right. I give Rasmus
and the Vagabond five out of five reading glasses.
—Benjamin Potter ,
March 16, 2015
[Disclaimer: I received this book
for free for the purposes of this review.]
No comments:
Post a Comment