Goran’s Great Escape

Goran’s Great Escape

It’s a beautiful, sunny Easter Sunday in Sweden. The farmer and his family are having breakfast before going to church and the farm workers are going about their daily chores. But Goran the bull is angry. He breaks loose from his stall, and charges down the barn and out into the yard.

People gather from miles around to see the raging bull. But who will dare to cross Goran’s path? Will he stay angry forever? Karl, a seven-year-old farm boy, has a plan. Can a very small boy tame a very big bull?

A delightful story by acclaimed author Astrid Lindgren. The exquisitely detailed illustrations of wooden houses, farming families in their Sunday best and groves of white birch trees give a vivid sense of springtime on a Swedish farm of long ago.

About the Author

Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002), born Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson, was a well-known Swedish writer whose works renewed children’s literature in Sweden and Scandinavia. Her best-known characters are independent and unconventional, including the untidy Pippi Longstocking, Karlsson, and Emil and his entertaining pranks. Her books for children received many awards, including the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for Pippi Longstocking in 1973; the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1958; and the International Book Award from UNESCO in 1993. Astrid Lindgren’s success as an author brought her into the public eye and she became involved in national debates on issues including taxation policies, nuclear power and the treatment of children, refugees and animals. She continued in public life until the age of ninety-one, when she suffered a stroke and stopped appearing in public. Astrid Lindgren passed away at her home in Dalagatan.

Marit Törnqvist was born in 1964 in Uppsala, Sweden and divides her time between the Netherlands and Sweden. She studied illustration at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 2011 she was awarded a Golden Plaque from the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava, one of the most prestigious children’s illustration awards. She has illustrated several of Astrid Lindgren’s picture books, including A Calf for Christmas and Goran’s Great Escape (Floris Books) and is also the author of many other books for children.