PAPPA PELLERIN'S DAUGHTER

by Maria Gripe ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1966

Pappa Pellerin was Loella Persson's fantasy, and the twelve year old girl's story, although a stab at reality is actually illusionary. Loella lived alone with her baby brothers in an out of the way home outside a small rural Swedish village--they had never known their fathers and their mother worked on a ship. The girl, considered a local eccentric, lived in almost total solitude and her closest friend was really her scarecrow which she named Pappa Pellerin. When the children's mother finally abandoned them, Loella was placed in a city orphanage. The forced change in her situation, which brings her into immediate contact with others, including a brash, citified roommate, heads her toward a more normal relationship with people, but is accompanied by her growing belief in a daydream of finding her father (she calls him Pappa Pellerin, of course). Loella's return to normally occurs with unlikely ease, although some details of personality are well realized. The point of the book is badly shattered by the tear-bath ending, however. Just as Loella appears to be turning into a well-balanced person capable of recognizing the falsity of the make-believe about her father, she is allowed to return to the never-never land of her little country home where she finds her father waiting for her exactly as she had idealized. It is a much too rosy view of what can be a serious adolescent delusion.

Pub Date: May 31, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION