PIPPI LONGSTOCKING'S AFTER-CHRISTMAS PARTY

At the end of Pippi in the South Seas (1959), Pippi and friends Tommy and Annika celebrated Christmas in Pippi's ramshackle Villa Villekulla. Pippi's After-Christmas Party, published in Sweden in the 1950s and not available in English until now, begins here. All the children come to a party in Pippi's snow-covered garden, where a trail of candies leads to a huge Christmas tree laden with goodies and presents. They feast on hot chocolate and cream cake inside an igloo, sled down the steep roof of the villa, dance and sing around the tree and, in an old Swedish custom, strip it of its treasures. Pippi welcomes a shy new boy and adopts a stray dog before the evening's over. She also vanquishes a child- hating old woman in a purely verbal skirmish, without resorting to her superhuman strength. The ratio of sweetness to silliness is perhaps a little higher than in the earlier stories, but Pippi spouts a bit of her usual inspired nonsense. Chesworth's combination of full-color illustrations and black silhouettes will look alien at first to readers accustomed to the Louis Glanzman drawings, but he has depicted Pippi exactly as Lindgren described her in the first book. Her fans will rejoice at the arrival of "one more story" about Pippi. (Picture book. 5-10)