Today is Astrid Lindgren's birthday; it would have been her 101st. It's also this blog's birthday: its first! I'm celebrating by making plans for bookstogether's future. All of which include...more posts, for starters. Thank you for reading and commenting thus far!

And check out this gorgeous edition of Pippi Longstocking (Viking, 2007). Tiina Nunnally's translation is described as sparkling; I like it, but I definitely prefer "thing-finder" to Nunnally's "thing-searcher" (does anyone know what that is in Swedish?). I love Lauren Child's illustrations, though; her Pippi is sweeter somehow than Glanzman's (the one I grew up with), but still sassy. And I really love the book's design, which occasionally merges text and illustration (full-color throughout) in all kinds of interesting ways. Our new favorite Pippi. And we do love our Pippi.

[N.b., it's not actually my birthday; that's October 5, and I share it with Toot of Holly Hobbie's Toot and Puddle (see A Present for Toot). Although I'm probably more of a Puddle than a Toot, except when it comes to European travel. And definitely more of an Annika than a Pippi, for that matter.]