Always on the child’s side
Abstract
To provide a title of a speech given at “The Astrid Lindgren Centennial Conference. The liberated child – childhood in the works of Astrid Lindgren” is a phrase very well expected namely Always on the child’s side. There is not much to brood over the theme very long, because we all know, that nobody speaks so persistently for the children of the world, not even the UN conventions, so clearly and so movingly as Astrid Lindgren does – and she speaks so that they themselves can hear, rejoice and be comforted. It could also have been the heading Always on the side of the powerless, the weak, and the feeble. Astrid Lindgren’s compassion for the poor inmates of the workhouse is as great as ever Charles Dickens’, and her concern for the penniless young men and women who toiled long hours for a little pay – or none – with no brighter prospects than that of the asylum is equally great and worth dwelling on. Nonetheless, children are her first and foremost concern, so this article will concentrate on them.
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