"In that little yellow house lived three sisters", March 4, 2016

This review is from: Aunt Green, Aunt Brown & Aunt Lavender (Hardcover)
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First in the 'Peter & Lotta' series, this is the story of how the children first came to live with the three old aunts in their little yellow house. Aunt Green is always out in her orchard; Aunt Brown likes making gingerbread ...and Aunt Lavender just dresses in lavender. And opposite, keeping an eye out for naughty children scrumping the Aunts' fruit lives Uncle Blue.
When a nasty man makes off with their poodle, Dot, the children help find him - and a kitten into the bargain! Since the children have no parents and live with Washerwoman Wendy who doesn't like them, it's easily arranged that they come to live with the aunts. Esmerelda, the kitten, gets to stay too: "she helped by catching rats and drinking cream and playing with Aunt Lavender's ball of wool."
Beautiful little story with illustrations set in the Swedish countryside. ( )

Originally published in 1918 as Tant Grön, Tant Brun och Tant Gredelin, this classic Swedish picture-book is the first of five adventures featuring Peter and Lotta, and explains how those two children came to be living with Aunt Green, Aunt Brown, and Aunt Lavender in the first place. Three maiden sisters living together, the eponymous aunts - so known because of the colour of dress they invariably choose to wear - set out to walk their beloved black poodle Dot, only to find one thing after another delaying them. Impatient at being kept waiting, Dot takes off on his own, but soon finds himself in the clutches of a villainous organ grinder (as you do). Naturally, the aunts set out to find him, but they meet with mixed results. As Aunt Green finds herself stuck in a barn with an injured kitten, and Aunt Lavender is marooned in the forest after soaking her shoes and stockings, while attempting to cross a stream, Aunt Brown meets two unhappy young orphans, Peter and Lotta. Cheering them up by replacing their lost penny, she shares the tale of the lost Dot with them, asking them to bring him to the house, should they ever find him. This (of course) they do, rescuing the dognapped Dot from the organ grinder, and restoring him to the aunts (aiding Aunt Lavender and Aunt Green along the way), thereby winning for themselves a luxurious tea, and a permanent home...

Having read a few of the subsequent Peter and Lotta adventures, I am gratified to have finally tracked down this initial title. Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender has some of the madcap sense of adventure to be found in others of Elsa Beskow's stories, and much of the same humour as well. I was amused by the way in which Beskow takes the figure of the demure 19th-century maiden spinster - so proper! so prim! - and places her in seemingly incongruous situations. Beskow is not afraid to put adults in awkward places - stranded in a barn loft in the hay, or barefoot in the forest - that the young reader might not expect. The artwork here is just lovely, as one would expect with Beskow, for whom Sweden's premier illustrator's award is named. Each two page spread features the text on the left, and a full-page colour illustration on the right. The page with the text also features some artwork, usually in the form of black silhouettes on the white page. I found that I enjoyed both the silhouette and the full-colour illustrations. All in all, a strong beginning to an engaging series, one that highlights Beskow's talent at depicting small domestic dramas, in addition to her well-known fairy-tale/fantasies. ( )

Mom's review: A wonderful old picture book. I loved this one as a child myself, and was delighted to discover that it hasn't lost any of its appeal over the years; my children enjoy it just as much as I did.

The illustrations are incredible; you can almost smell the gingerbread baking in the kitchen. But I do have a slight issue with the translation. The translator has made some modifications to the original text. We never learn, in the English translation, why Dot wears a black rosette on Sundays (his mama died on a Sunday), or that the old washerwoman beats the children. I can understand wanting to spare a young reader's feelings, but I think these emendations are misguided. I remember reading the original story as a child, and feeling horror at the thought that Peter and Lotta were beaten - but that horror was part of the story,and made me feel even more urgently that the children HAD to get away from that terrible woman and seek refuge with the kind, eccentric aunts. And the mention of Dot's poor dead mama added a note of solemnity to the story, and contrasted wonderfully with the end of the book, where Dot abandons his mourning and is dressed in more cheerful rosettes to celebrate the creation of a new family. ( )