Meg Rosoff doesn't shy away from life's big issues in her novels for young readers - from marital strife to the existence of God. Her ability to reach hearts and heads has won her the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
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"Meg Rosoff's young adult novels speak to the emotions as well as the intellect," jury chair Boel Westin said on Tuesday (05.04.2016) in Stockholm. "In sparkling prose, she writes about the search for meaning and identity in a peculiar and bizarre world. Her brave and humorous stories are one-of-a-kind. She leaves no reader unmoved."
The American-British youth author is this year's winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which is named for the Swedish creator of Pippi Longstocking. Rosoff, who lives in London, is best known for her 2004 novel "How I Live Now," which received the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in Britain and the Printz Award in the US.
"There is No Dog," a comic novel putting a 19-year-old boy in the role of God, and "Picture Me Gone," a parent-child mystery starring a 12-year-old mentalist, are Rosoff's most recent works.
The author was born in Boston to a Jewish family in 1956 and lived alternately in the US and the UK after graduating from Harvard University. She is now based in London.
On her website, Rosoff offers tips for budding writers. She lists a few dozen unusual and very diverse experiences she's had, from "paddling a kayak next to a giant sea lion" and "having 18 hours of childbirth" to jumping a five bar fence" with her eyes closed and "playing miniature golf with Dave Letterman in his office."
"All my life I despaired at being a jack of all trades and master of none, but it all proved fantastically useful when I started writing," concluded the successful author.
Highest award for children's literature
The most prestigious accolade for children's and young adult literature, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, is presented annually to a single laureate or to several and is endowed with 5 million Swedish crowns ($615,000).
Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible for the prize, which was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 to promote interest in children's and young adult literature.
Previous winners includethe Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (2015), Swedish author Barbro Lindgren (2014) and Argentinean illustrator Isol (2013).
Click through the gallery below to visit the home of the late Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren, the creator of Pippi Longstocking and namesake of the literature prize.
Now you can visit Astrid Lindgren's Stockholm home
It was in her Stockholm apartment that Astrid Lindgren invented "Pippi Longstocking." Her home hasn't been touched since her death in 2002, but now the children author's residence is opening as a museum.
Image: Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH
Pippi: The strongest girl in the world
The eccentric little girl with the freckles and red braids, who lives in Villa Villekulla, was Astrid Lindgren's favorite character. Pippi Longstocking dared to talk back, climb walls and wear unusual clothes. In Lindgren's children's book, Pippi is the strongest girl in the world and, since she doesn't have parents, she's allowed to do whatever she wants.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A kids' book that went around the world
"Pippi Longstocking" was Astrid Lindgren's first book, but it garnered her global fame. Actually, Lindgren (1907-2002) never planned on becoming a writer. She invented the crazy stories about the parentless redhead in 1941 when her own daughter was home sick. In 1944, she wrote them down. Since then, the story has been translated into some 50 languages.
Image: Getty Images
Family life in the city
Astrid Lindgren lived for over 60 years in the Vasa quarter of Stockholm at the address Dalagatan 46. That was the house she was born in, which she was able to purchase in 1965 with the money she won with the Swedish national literature prize. Lindgren had two children, Lasse and Karin, and incorporated many of their ideas in her books.
Image: Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH/K. Johansen
Kid tested and approved
Astrid Lindgren read all of her stories to her daughter Karin (left) first before she got them published. From Bill Bergson to Karlsson-on-the-Roof, all of her characters were appealing to children - if not, Lindgren's own kids would veto them.
Image: Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH
Idyllic Swedish villages
Many of Astrid Lindgren's novels have been turned into successful movies as well. Millions of children all over the world have sat in front of the TV and dreamed of adventurous worlds like the one in "The Six Bullerby Children." The town in the story is based on Sevedstorp, the village where Lindgren's father grew up. It's located just a few kilometers from her hometown, Vimmerby.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Advocate for children
In 1978, Astrid Lindgren became the first children's author to win the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In her speech at the award ceremony in Frankfurt, she made an appeal for children's rights - an issue she was passionate about her whole life.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Ericson
Political diaries
Astrid Lindgren wasn't only interested in children's tales, but also in politics. She started writing a diary on September 1, 1939, the day the Nazis invaded Poland and World War II began. She noted that it was unfortunate that no one had shot Hitler. Her war-time diary was published as a book just this year.
