Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Photo: Amazon

This book is about a spunky nine-year-old girl, whose parents have died. She lives all alone in a house, but has no worries. She has superhuman strength and a lot of money. She doesn’t go to school, but on her friends’ insistence, she does give it a try. Unfortunately, Pippi’s lively mind, which is bubbling with questions, cannot be contained in a classroom. She doesn’t understand society’s rules. She ends up giving money to the thieves who come to steal money from her house! She comes across as obnoxious to ‘graceful’ women, but she is a hero for children because she even saves a boy from bullies. In short, she is a badass girl, who doesn’t give a damn about what people think about her. She does things her way. Pippi doesn’t have conventional knowledge, but she learns all the practical things in life due to her curiosity and determination.

I think both children and adults will enjoy this book. There is a Pippi inside each one of us, but we pretend that we have “grown up”. Since most of us betray this Pippi inside us, we feel jealous when an adult doesn’t care about stifling traditions and rules. We brand unconventional people as ‘abnormal’, but deep inside, we admire their courage to be who they are. We cannot admit this to ourselves of course, and hence, we shame these individuals.

P.S. I just came to know that today is International Children’s Book Day. What a day to finish this book :).

Books: Bluest Eye, Master Key System & Matilda

I’m back after a mini-break (much-needed one!) and I have to share something the books that I finished reading.

1. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

I don’t know why I chose this book over Alice Walker’s famous novel ‘The Color Purple’. Maybe the theme appealed to me, maybe I wanted to read something more personal, I don’t know. But I’m glad I picked up this book. I think it would be an understatement to say that this is the most disturbing book that I have ever read in my life. To give you an idea, this book has child sexual abuse, incestuous rape etc. And it is just not easy to get through it. But in the end, it’s worth it because Morrison writes BRILLIANTLY. She kills you. She questions you. She shakes up your belief system. In a way, you feel as if your mind and soul are naked, because Morrison’s writing is just….I don’t have words for it. She tells you the story of a little black girl who wants blue eyes, so that people love her. She feels ugly because society tells her that black people are ugly. It’s heartbreaking because we all feel this way. Especially girls.  One quote that I HAD to share:

We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we has a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dreams we used–to silence our own nightmares. And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.

And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We substituted good grammar for intellect; we switched habits to simulate maturity; we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.

2. Master Key System by Charles F Haanel

In this book, the author claims that everything that happens to us (good or bad), happens because of what we think. In a way, everything is mind. While I do agree with most things that he says, I also believe that you cannot think whatever you want to think. For example: There is this famous thought experiment of pink elephants. If someone asks you to not think about pink elephants, most probably, you WILL think about Pink Elephants. Because mind doesn’t understand “DON’T.’ However, I’m glad that Haanel doesn’t believe in magical thinking. He acknowledges that one cannot think good things, always. And that’s why he has tons of exercises. Some of them are good and some of them are boring.

3. Matilda by Roald Dahl

Need I say anything about this beautiful book? Roald Dahl doesn’t look down upon children. He doesn’t spoon feed you. His writing is just so lovable. ‘Matilda’ is a story of a girl, who is neglected by her parents. She is genius who reads Charles Dickens and other classic writers at the age of four. And it’s not some adult who taught her to read, she learned it by herself. The lonely little girl finally finds an understanding and compassionate teacher named Miss Honey and their friendship changes their lives forever. Please don’t miss out on this book because of the ‘Children’s Book’ tag. JUST READ IT.

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Photo: Amazon

This adorable and witty book is about a eleven year old girl named Harriet M. Welsch who wants to be a writer. She observes every little thing about people who are around her and people whom she doesn’t even know. After school, she puts on her ‘spy clothes’ and secretly follows people, listens to their conversations and then, notes down comments immediately. Now, the problem is that Harriet cannot lie. Most of her observations are mean. One day, her classmates get their hands on her notebook. That notebook has a lot of observations about them and when they find out that Harriet writes rude comments about them…what do they do?.To find out, you have to read the book.

Harriet is confident, cocky, mean, intelligent and passionate. She is such a cool spy that she follows a strict routine and enjoys it. She is meticulous in her spying and her writing. This is a children’s novel and I’m so glad that the writer didn’t feel the need to have a ‘good’ and ‘nice’ protagonist. Harriet is not likable. I hated her comments but I ended up loving her. I found this book in a feminist reading list and I believe it deserves a place there. Because you don’t have to have books about nice women or girls to talk about feminism.

This book is not just for children (Harriet will be very angry if you think this way and YOU will be angry for thinking this way when you finish this book).