Wildness of children, here are all the books that teach us to love it and to consider it a very precious quality.
How wild were you in childhood? And how wild have you been in adulthood? Wilderness is a special quality, even if at first glance it may seem uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because wild children often dislike rules and tend to have their own way… inspired by wild nature.
It would not be bad to cultivate it from an early age even in the most meek spirits because wilderness is precious both from a creative and human point of view. If on the one hand it goes with love and in accord with the imagination, on the other it helps to live life beyond conditioning, judgments, common morality. Because the wild spirit does not give up its individuality and intuition to please others and the society in which it lives. And that doesn't make it disrespectful, far from it!
Literature has produced several children like this, first of all the legendary Pippi Longstocking, a rebellious girl, decidedly wild, creative and special. And we want to talk about Coraline, the protagonist of the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman? Or Bibi, another Nordic outside the box ?! Here you are the books that teach us to love the wilderness.
Index
Pippi Long Socks by Astrid Lindgren
@Salani Editore
Mythical, unique, wild, Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren is one of those characters who made "history"! Although more than 70 years have passed since her birth, she continues to be a model of timeless wildness, a true nonconformist, a free spirit who pulls smiles from even the most boring adults.
The book, which was published in 1945, focuses on the eccentric little girl with the curious name, who lives with a monkey and a horse in a huge villa in Sweden, has a pirate dad, a great treasure hidden in her house, and two friends named Tommy and Annika.
Pippi, as everyone knows, is not an obedient child, she always does her own thing and is very happy to live alone because in this way she can go to bed when she likes and does not have to give explanations to any mom or dad. She is so loved all over the world that she has now become an icon of friendly wildness.
What does it teach us? The value of freedom! Freedom to think for yourself even when the majority think differently, freedom to be yourself in spite of common morality, freedom to live life according to your own inclinations. But still with such generosity!
Coraline at Neil Gaiman
@Mondadori
Coraline is a book by Neil Gaiman, a dark fairy tale centered on the adventures of the young protagonist, Coraline, a curious child very bored with the daily grind, who enters a singular parallel universe where disturbing surprises await her.
Coraline's wildness lies in her curiosity, fueled by boredom, which pushes her to enter the unknown. Of course, the encounters that await her in the parallel world are not reassuring, but necessary to give her a new awareness, to make her mature and to discover an unexpected inner courage.
Coraline teaches us, a bit like Alice in Wonderland, to be curious, to go beyond the reassuring worlds to which we belong to see beyond, challenging the darkness of the unknown, in spite of common sense.
Bibi, you northern girls of Karin Michaelis
@Salani Editore
Bibi is a Danish girl who, a bit like Pippi, just can't give up her free and independent nature. Luckily! She has a stationmaster dad thanks to whom she can travel without a ticket throughout Denmark even if she ends up touring on the most disparate means, from bicycles to cattle wagons, like a vagabond.
Bibi is curious, independent, creative, lively, complex, different from many of her peers. She is not afraid of her, in her bizarre adventures she voluntarily runs many dangers, she has "strange" friends and all this makes her a heroine par excellence of wildness.
Bibi teaches us to be ourselves, in spite of the surrounding world and its attempts to tame us.
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