The children on Troublemaker Street Book

Truth be told, I actually never did manage to read the prequel to Astrid Lindgren's Lotta på Bråkmakargatan as a child (which I of course read in German translation, and indeed Lotta zieht um was one of my favourite books from around the time I was seven years old and had just learned to read) as somehow my mother was not aware that there indeed was a prequel, that there was a book titled Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße (the German translation, the German language version of Barnen på Bråkmakargatan, which takes place about a year before the events portrayed during Lotta's very bad and terrible, temper tantrum day as related in Lotta zieht um, and Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße features a series of episodic anecdotes of Swedish family life, of the Nyman family's and especially of course their three young children's games, fun and at times mischief, narrated by the middle child, the at that time six year old Mia-Maria). But sadly (and after finally now heaving read Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße as I realized that this story is actually contained in a compilation of Astrid Lindgren shorter novels and stories I happen to own), although Astrid Lindgren is still a perennial and total personal favourite with and for me, Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße, whilst definitely amusing and entertaining to a point, has also not been nearly as textually and as narrationally delightful and as personally approachable, as readable as Lotta zieht um and yes as many of the Astrid Lindgren novels and stories I have read.

For one, in Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße, Mia-Maria's first person narration and voice tends to often come across and read as rather choppy and distancing (and so much so that I am feeling more like an outsider looking in than like an insider actually experiencing the Nyman children's fun and games, their trip to visit their grandparents, their Christmas joys and so on and so on). And for two, there are also simply far far too many often unconnected episodes and anecdotes stuffed into a relatively short novel, with the result that there really is not all that much of a connecting thread holding the episodes of Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße together, leaving at least me with more than a bit of a feeling of disconnection (of constantly being thrown out of the narrative, out of Mia-Maria's descriptions and explanations because she moves from one episode to another at breakneck speed, with the reader never really getting a chance to fully immerse himself or herself into the story, into Jonas', Mia-Maria's and Lotta's lives).

However, even with my criticisms (and my two star ranking), Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße, and by extension of course also the Swedish original (as well as other translations) are still to be recommended (and yes, I do very much love and appreciate how Astrid Lindgren so glowingly and with obvious pleasure portrays and describes Swedish family life and in particular how hands-off Swedish child-rearing ideas and concepts often if not even usually seem to be, although I do as a caveat leave a bit of a warning that personally, I have indeed found both Mia-Maria's and Jonas' rather constant put-downs of Lotta and their pontifications of how their younger sister is supposedly so stupid and immature rather tedious and even a bit overly nasty at times, and in fact to the point that by the end of Die Kinder aus der Krachmacherstraße, I absolutely was feeling more than a bit uncomfortable and certainly not really in any manner all that well-disposed towards either of Lotta's older siblings and could therefore also appreciate Lotta labelling her bother and sister as nasty and mean).