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Pippi Longstocking, The Icon You Are!

Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Pippi Longstocking

Educators, Parents, and Pippi lovers, join us for a panel discussion to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Pippi Longstocking in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden.

With extraordinary strength, independent spirit and a wild imagination, Pippi Longstocking, the creation of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, rocked the literary world 80 years ago with her stories of freedom and rebellion.

You’re invited to join an esteemed panel as Swedish and American authors, librarians and academics discuss the literary icon who challenged the way girls are seen and accepted and how today’s literature addresses the challenges of children and youth. 

The DC Public Library invites you to celebrate her Swedish roots, the literary phenomenon that grew, and the stories she’s inspired over eighty years.

Meet the Panelists

Laurie Halse Anderson received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023. In her richly expressive novels Anderson gives voice to the adolescent experience with sometimes brutal honesty. Here is resignation, even desperation, but also a determination for change kept alive by the search for meaning, identity, and truth. Her latest novel Rebellion 1776, about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic and the seething Revolutionary War, is a New York Times bestseller. Laurie Halse Anderson makes her home in Philadelphia. Alongside her writing, she is powerfully committed to issues related to sexual violence, diversity, and book censorship.

Åsa Bergman is the head of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. This global award is given annually to a person or organization for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was created in 2002 by the Swedish government to promote every child’s right to great stories. With a prize of 500,000 USD, it is the largest award of its kind.

Jenny Jägerfeld is a writer and a psychologist that has worked with children, teenagers, and adults in both public and private practice. She has also studied philosophy and sexology and worked as a writing teacher. She writes columns and is often a guest in radio and tv.

Jenny Jägerfeld debuted as an author 2006 with A Hole in the Head. Her second book, the YA novel Me on the Floor, Bleeding won the August Price 2010 in the category best children’s and YA books.

In her books, Jenny Jägerfeld dares to address the big and difficult existential questions. With deep respect for the reader – and the topic – she portrays mental illness, ADHD, child poverty, gender identity, suicide and exclusion. In all the depictions, humor also plays a large and redemptive role.

With the middle grade novels Top Bro! and Comedy Queen she found new readers, and Jenny Jägerfeld´s books have been praised by both the readers and reviewers. Comedy Queen was awarded Best children’s book 2018 (Swedish Radio’s Children Book Award), shortlisted for “Best Swedish Children’s and YA”, 2018 (August Prize) and shortlisted for The Nils Holgersson Plaque – Best Swedish Children’s and YA novel 2018 (Swedish Library Association). In 2017 she was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Prize.

Jägerfeld’s middle grade novel My Royal Grand Golden Life was nominated for the August Prize and shortlisted for the Swedish Radio Children Book’s Award. The sequel My Royal Grand Golden Death was published in 2021, and the final part of the trilogy with Sigge and his family and friends in Skärblacka was published in 2022, My Royal Grand Golden Love. Just as in her previous books, Jägerfeld writes an unforgettable story combining magnificent humor and important topics.

It was after attending a stage adaptation of Frankenstein that longtime friends Jenny Jägerfeld and Mats Strandberg finally found the spark for a project they could create together. As the curtain fell, they began joking: what if Victor, Elizabeth — and the Monster — had simply gone to therapy? The thought made them laugh, but then they looked at each other and realized… they had a book.
 

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