Pippi Longstocking meets Heidi meets Anne Shirley in this tale of an
irrepressible girl in a mountain village who navigates unexpected
changes with warmth and humor.
Speed and self-confidence, that's Astrid's motto. Nicknamed "the little
thunderbolt," she loves to spend her days racing down the hillside on
her sled, singing loudly as she goes, and visiting Gunnvald, her grumpy,
septuagenarian best friend and godfather, who makes hot chocolate from
real chocolate bars. She just wishes there were other children to share
her hair-raising adventures with. But Astrid's world is about to be
turned upside down by two startling arrivals to the village of
Glimmerdal: first a new family, then a mysterious, towering woman who
everyone seems to know but Astrid. It turns out that Gunnvald has been
keeping a big secret from his goddaughter, one that will test their
friendship to its limits. Astrid is not too happy about some of these
upheavals in Glimmerdal -- but, luckily, she has a plan to set things
right.