All the people in Lönneberga felt sorry for the Svenssons in Katthult who had such a rascal for a son. If only they’d known that Emil was going to become Chairman of the Local Council when he grew up! But this book is not about that. It’s about all the mischief – like that time when Emil got his head got stuck in the soup tureen and that unfortunate Sunday when he hoisted little Ida up the flagpole.The first book about Emil i Lönneberga, one of the most beloved of all of Astrid Lindgren’s characters, and the one she liked best. The stories of Emil are based on her own father Samuel August and everything he told her about his childhood in Småland during the end of the 19th century.In 2020, the books have been newly illustrated by Mini Grey and published by Oxford University Press in the UK. Previous editions were illustrated by Tony Ross.
Fact
In 1949, the young German publisher Friedrich Oetinger was in Stockholm to meet the author Gunnar Myrdal. In a bookstore, he happened to hear about Pippi Langstrumpf. The rest is history – he requested a meeting with Astrid Lindgren and obtained a German option for the Pippi trilogy. Verlag Friedrich Oetinger in Hamburg still publishes all of Astrid Lindgren's children's books, and her great popularity in Germany remains intact. The film adaptations of her books were, in several cases, German co-productions, and they are still shown on German TV, especially around Christmas. Several of Astrid Lindgren's songs are very well known in their German translations, such as "Hey Pippi Langstrumpf!".