"Madiken" is similar to the beloved "We are all from Bullerby", only here we are not talking about a group of children, but about two girls - seven-year-old Madiken and her little sister Lisabeth. They live on a farm, grow in the open space, and reach out to the sun like flowers.
There are no fairy-tale events here - the magic is in life itself, in daily games, chores and joys of childhood. Girls have a picnic on the tiled roof of their house, play daughter-mother with chocolate dolls, escape from cows on a birch tree and celebrate Christmas. Well, with them, as with any children, you never know where to expect a trick: either they will stick a pea in their nose, then they will jump from the top with an umbrella, or they will run away at night to see ghosts and they themselves will be scared to death, and they will alarm the whole farm. And then they’ll bring in more lice - that hasn’t happened to anyone either?
The book has a lot of interesting and girly details. You read and think “I want that too!” For example, after receiving a gift from their grandparents, the girls unpack the box: “The cardboard contains lots and lots of silky pink paper. Under it lies a small, small baby doll, and a small, small bathtub to bathe the baby, and a small, small bottle with a pacifier to feed him, and a small, small soap to wash him. And there is also a bag of beads that you need to string on a thread yourself, and there will be a necklace, and two small green boxes with pretty pictures on the lids, and inside each there is a pink marzipan pig and a ring.”
How do you like this unboxing? Do you want to play by yourself? Following this family, you will want to go on a picnic, cook a festive dinner, and have fun at the city ball - everything is so textured and attractively described.
And how nice it is to see how much love these pages are full of for people - both for children and for adults. Although at that time no one had ever heard of respect for a child, in the books of the progressive Astrid Lindgren, adults are not eternally irritated and sarcastic mentors to whom children are sent as punishment, but wise and benevolent parents or older comrades, ready to support, pity and come to the rescue, no matter who did what and no matter what stupidity. And this, by the way, is also contagious; it’s not just boxes with baby dolls that you want to bring into your life.
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