Thursday, April 16, 2009

My favourite story about sisters


My favourite story about sisters is a fairytale from 1949, written by Astrid Lindgren, the finest fantasy writer for children there ever was.

It's called Allrakäraste syster, Most beloved sister, and is about a little girl named Barbro.

Her father likes her mother the most and her mother likes the new baby the most, but Barbro is also someone's favourite, because she has a secret twin sister called Ylva-li, whose name for Barbro is Most Beloved Sister.

Ylva-li is the queen of the golden hall. You reach it by crawling down the hole under the rose bush, Salikon. In the hall they play with their dogs, feed their little white rabbits and ride their horses Goldenfoot and Silverfoot.

They ride through the Big Horrible Woods where The Evil Ones live, to The Good Ones who offer cookies and sweets from the big stove in the middle of the meadow. They ride on to The Most Beautiful Valley in the World, where the flowers sing and the trees play music.

The ending is quite sad, so I won't write about that today. Because today is a good day, the third day of spring, and Line's birthday.

Happy birthday, Linegull! You are my Allrakäraste syster.

4 comments:

Li:ne said...

And you are mine, lovely! *kiss*
Actually this is the first I have heard of this Lindgren story. Must read!

Heidi said...

It's also my fifth wedding anniversary, so apparently April 16is a good day all around!

Watch out for those little white rabbits, though. They seem cute, until they start peeing all over your house and chewing through phone cords and one day in 1977 you come home from kindergarten and find your fluffy white rabbit has been replaced by a smaller, less fluffy hamster. I mean, uh, that COULD have happened. Maybe.
;-)

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
my name is rachel and I have been searching for 'my beloved sister' for what seems like a lifetime after losing my copy of it as a child. It has to be my favourite storybook of all time; from the words to the exquisite pictures, I simply haven't been able to get it out of my head or my heart since the first day I laid eyes on it.
I'm really really struggling to find anyone who is selling a copy of it, as I am desperate for my own little girl to have a copy of her own. Do you happen to know where I can purchase one from?
Thank you so much,
rachel g

tone almhjell said...

Oh joy! They have it in English at Amazon! Just type in Astrid Lindgren sister. Go forth and order, rachel g. It really is a wonderful story.