Somewhere in Sweden there are three neighboring farms that everybody calls "noisy village" because six high-spirited nine-to eleven-year-olds live there: three boys, Karl, Olaf, and Bill; and three girls, Britta, Anna, and Lisa, who tells this story. Olaf's sister Kerstin in only a year and a half old, so naturally doesn't count.

The grown-ups of the three households and the community are vividly alive in Lisa's perceptive descriptions. Mr. Kind, the shoemaker, for instance, is not at all like his name—a real crank, in fact. And Grandfather, whom all the children love, they would "rather have than a dog."

But the children themselves are the principal players in all the delightful little dramas that fill their lives with interest and excitement. The episodes of country life sparkle with the fun that only resourceful, imaginative children without "ready-made" amusements can devise. Some incidents are almost outrageously funny, some are quiet; but every one is animated with the warmth and wisdom of happy childhood. Ilon Wikland's beautifully controlled line-drawings add distinction and flavor to a lovely book.

From the dust jacket