Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren

Title: Mio, My Son

(Originally written in Swedish)

Author: Astrid Lindgren (Swedish, 1907-2002)
Originally published: 1956
Page count: 170

Dates read: 5/11/2020-5/12/2020
2020 book goal progress: 14 out of 20

Month category: 
May - Spring (New Beginnings / Children)
Back to the Classics category: 
Classic in Translation

Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.


Description on back of book:
Nine-year-old Karl Anders Nilsson is the unwelcome foster child of an uncaring couple. Lonely and neglected, he yearns for simple things, and, most important, his real father. Then on October 15th, Karl Anderson Nilsson simply disappears. Karl is instead in Farawayland, where he has found his father, who is none other than the king of that land. Now Karl faces a truly dangerous mission - to do battle with Sir Kato, the cruel abductor of the children of Farwayland. Only a child of royal blood can stop him.

First sentence:
"Did you listen to the radio on October 15th last year?"

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 6.3 - ⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 5
Atmosphere   - 6
Writing Style - 7
Plot                - 7
Intrigue          - 7
Logic             - 6
Enjoyment     - 6
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

This was a cute fairy tale written by the same author as Pippi Longstocking. It is definitely a children's story and is very simple and straight forward. It tells the story of a prophecy that has been around for thousands and thousands of years. There are golden apples, flute playing shepherds, magic horses, invisible cloaks, wonderful food, and more. It actually is quite dark with people of literal hearts of stone, children witched into blackbirds, and the like - but it has a happy ending. It was OK to read as an adult, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it much more if I had read it when I was a child.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Astrid Lindgren have the last words:

"I haven't been in many forests in my day, but there can't be another one like this. The Forest of Moonbeams had a secret. I felt there was a great and important secret there, but the moon had thrown a mist over the forest, so that I wouldn't know where it was. Not yet. The mist swirled through the trees, whispering the secret, but I couldn't understand it. The trees stood still and shimmered in the moonlight and they knew the secret, but I didn't."