Astrid the Unstoppable: A Modern Classic
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We just finished reading Astrid The Unstoppable by Maria Parr, about a nine year old girl called Astrid who is aptly nicknamed ‘the thunderbolt of Glimmerdal’. She is loud, adventurous, high-spirited and courageous, darting about with ‘speed and confidence’ as she goes about her days in the village of Glimmerdal, based upon the author’s home country of Norway.
Astrid’s best friend and godfather is a grumpy old man called Gunnvald (there are no other children in Astrid’s village), and it weaves a story about friendship and family with fun and fall-outs. There are secrets waiting to be discovered, accidents waiting to happen, and nature breathing life throughout its pages. I read this aloud over several weeks as part of our homeschool curriculum to both my five and eight year old. It got them both asking questions, even though some of the subject matter is above their understanding.
I loved watching my son’s attentiveness toward the story as he was trying to piece together clues of what was going to happen next. He was very engaged throughout and said his favourite part was when Astrid sledged fast and landed on the ferry! This was probably our longest read aloud to date, but it was worth it. It is an engaging story depicting relationships between Astrid and other adults and children.
After completing this book, I told my husband that this is up there in being one of my favourite children’s stories. It even made a lot of reference to my favourite childhood book of all time which was Heidi by Johanna Spyri. This played a significant part of the story so I will not delve deep! A book that references my favourite childhood book was a delightful surprise. It has made me want to revisit the pages of this classic. But Astrid The Unstoppable is a modern classic in its own right. The storytelling was superb and I found myself wondering what would happen next - and being completely surprised when it took twists and turns that I was not expecting! The writing was beautiful and there were many similes that I discovered and shared with the children to show how the author was using this to create such vivid imagery.
There were some memorable characters and moments with enough adventure to keep us all hooked. It was very moving in different parts and provided many opportunities to discuss difficult topics. This included the realities of family breakdown, dealing with challenging people, and walking through pain and loss. I love that we can discuss this as a family through the power of story. There are nuances in life where things are not always as clear as we think. I would love to read this again when my children are a bit older so we could go a little deeper.
Truly, this has become one of my favourite reads and I was genuinely sad to finish it. It has left its mark on my mind and heart. I hope you will seek it out for yourself and for the children in your care!
Reading Astrid the Unstoppable outdoors!
