(no subject)
Apr. 9th, 2013 10:04 amSomehow in my whole life, despite growing up on Pippi Longstocking, I had never actually read Ronia, the Robber's Daughter.
Fortunately,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aberration recognized this as the travesty it was and turned up one day with her copy for our household - in a very timely fashion, too, because children's adventure books make for AMAZING thesis-stress-reading.
Ronia, The Robber's Daughter is the most adorable book about a blood feud between two gangs of thieves EVER. Head Thief Matt is SUPER EXCITED to have a daughter to someday pass the leadership of his gang down to, which makes sense, because she's awesome.
He is way less excited to find out that his rival, Borka, a.) has a son and b.) is moving into the fortress next door. (Stupid Borka isn't even supposed to know how to MAKE kids!)
Meanwhile, the kids, Ronia and Birk, save each other's lives a few times, and then become friends, and then swear to be together forever, and then decide that their parents are making stupid and unethical life choices and they refuse to be a part of them.
HIJINKS ENSUE. And difficult family stuff, but -- spoiler! -- it all works out okay in the end. Honestly there is really nothing about the book that I can think of that is not delightful. Plucky badass kids! Adventure! Loyalty! Awesome moms! Daring escapes! Emotional depth! Etc., etc.
(Has anyone seen the movie? I feel like I was having a conversation about this with somebody recently, but that was before I read the book, so I actually had no idea what I was talking about.)
Fortunately,
aberration recognized this as the travesty it was and turned up one day with her copy for our household - in a very timely fashion, too, because children's adventure books make for AMAZING thesis-stress-reading.Ronia, The Robber's Daughter is the most adorable book about a blood feud between two gangs of thieves EVER. Head Thief Matt is SUPER EXCITED to have a daughter to someday pass the leadership of his gang down to, which makes sense, because she's awesome.
He is way less excited to find out that his rival, Borka, a.) has a son and b.) is moving into the fortress next door. (Stupid Borka isn't even supposed to know how to MAKE kids!)
Meanwhile, the kids, Ronia and Birk, save each other's lives a few times, and then become friends, and then swear to be together forever, and then decide that their parents are making stupid and unethical life choices and they refuse to be a part of them.
HIJINKS ENSUE. And difficult family stuff, but -- spoiler! -- it all works out okay in the end. Honestly there is really nothing about the book that I can think of that is not delightful. Plucky badass kids! Adventure! Loyalty! Awesome moms! Daring escapes! Emotional depth! Etc., etc.
(Has anyone seen the movie? I feel like I was having a conversation about this with somebody recently, but that was before I read the book, so I actually had no idea what I was talking about.)
