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Pippi Longstocking · Garden Heights
Part 1
for Pippi Longstocking · Part 1 · Chapter 1
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 1
At the edge of a tiny Swedish town stands an old house with a wild, overgrown garden — Villa Villekulla. One day a most unusual new neighbor moves in: Pippi Longstocking, a nine-year-old girl with carrot-red braids that stick straight out, a patchwork dress, and one black and one brown stocking. She lives completely alone — no mother, no father — with only a little monkey called Mr. Nilsson and a horse she keeps on the porch. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her sea-captain father was swept overboard in a storm; Pippi is sure he floated to a faraway island and became its king. Next door live two well-behaved children, Tommy and Annika, who watch in amazement as Pippi walks backward down the street, spins wild tales about Egypt, fries pancakes while eggs fly, and hands out gifts from her big suitcase of gold coins. By bedtime — with her feet on the pillow — Pippi has turned two ordinary lives upside down.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Words of character and travel: orphan, peculiar, voyage, hoist, astonished, companion…
Literary Elements
Characterization, hyperbole, and contrast
Cross-Curricular
Where Sweden is, what a villa is, and why gold coins once worked as money
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
1a
A New Neighbor — Pippi moves into Villa Villekulla alone with her monkey and her horse.
1b
Her Story — her mother is gone and her sea-captain father was lost in a storm; Pippi believes he is a king on a faraway island.
1c
Meeting Tommy and Annika — the children next door meet Pippi as she walks backward and spins tall tales.
1d
Pancakes and Presents — wild cooking, gifts from a suitcase of gold coins, and a goodnight with feet on the pillow.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapter 1, then answer each question.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Could Anyone Really Lift a Horse?
Content · Science of StrengthWhen Pippi lifts her horse off the porch, Lindgren is winking at a real law of nature. Every object has weight, which is the pull of gravity on its mass, and a full-grown horse weighs around five hundred kilograms — as much as seven grown adults stacked together. Our muscles lift by pulling on bones, but a muscle can only pull so hard before it strains, so even the world’s strongest lifters top out near half a horse. That is why a child raising a horse overhead is impossible in real life, and exactly why it feels so wonderful on the page. Understanding the true limit is what turns Pippi’s feat from a simple fib into a joyful, deliberate impossibility that only a story can grant its heroine — a wish made of pure, weightless strength.
orphann.Ch.1
A child whose parents have died
“People call Pippi an orphan, but she never feels sorry for herself.”
peculiaradj.Ch.1
Strange or unusual
“Her backward walk looked most peculiar.”
voyagen.Ch.1
A long journey by sea
“Her father sailed on many long voyages.”
overboardadv.Ch.1
Over the side of a ship into the water
“A great wave swept the captain overboard.”
hoistv.Ch.1
To lift something heavy
“Pippi could hoist her own horse.”
astonishedadj.Ch.1
Very surprised
“Tommy and Annika stared, astonished.”
companionn.Ch.1
A friend who spends time with you
“The little monkey was her constant companion.”
tremendousadj.Ch.1
Very great in amount or strength
“Pippi has tremendous strength.”
frecklesn.Ch.1
Small brown spots on the skin
“Her face was covered in freckles.”
talen.Ch.1
A story, especially a wild or invented one
“She told a tale about Egypt.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1A child whose parents have died is called an ___.Ch.1
2If something is ‘peculiar,’ it is completely ordinary and expected.Ch.1
3A long journey by sea is a ___.Ch.1
4To ‘hoist’ something means to lift it up.Ch.1
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.1
Word choices:astonishedcompanionfrecklesvoyage- some words will not be used
The children were by their strange new neighbor.
Mr. Nilsson the monkey was Pippi’s little .
6A wave that sweeps a sailor ___ carries him over the ship’s side.Ch.1
7‘Tremendous’ strength is weak and easily used up.Ch.1
8The small brown spots on Pippi’s face are her ___.Ch.1
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.1
Word choices:talepeculiarorphanhoist- some words will not be used
Pippi told a wild about Egypt.
Her backward walk seemed very to the children.
10A friend who keeps you company is a ___.Ch.1
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapter 1.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Sorting the Real from the Impossible
Comprehension · Chapter 1Chapter 1 mixes two kinds of facts, and a careful reader learns to sort them. Some details are perfectly ordinary and true: Pippi lives alone, keeps a monkey and a horse, and has a suitcase of gold coins from her sea-captain father. Other details break the laws of the body, like a nine-year-old hoisting a horse or never growing tired. When you separate the believable from the impossible, you are practicing a key comprehension skill — deciding which claims a real world would allow and which belong only to the tall tale. This matters because the whole book runs on that gap: Pippi’s home life is realistic enough to feel true, while her strength is gloriously beyond nature. Reading well means holding both at once and enjoying the sparkling line where the ordinary turns impossible.
1Who moves into Villa Villekulla at the start of the story?Ch.1
2Who lives with Pippi in the house?Ch.1
3Pippi’s mother died when Pippi was a tiny baby.Ch.1
4What does Pippi believe happened to her father?Ch.1
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapter 1. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.1
Tommy and Annika discover someone has moved in next door.
Pippi arrives at Villa Villekulla with her monkey and horse.
Pippi fries pancakes while eggs fly through the air.
Pippi walks backward and explains her tall tales.
Pippi says goodnight and sleeps with her feet on the pillow.
6Tommy and Annika are wild, rude children who never obey their mother.Ch.1
7Where does Pippi keep her horse?Ch.1
8What is in the big suitcase Pippi carries?Ch.1
9When Pippi walks backward, she explains that people in Egypt walk that way.Ch.1
10How does Pippi sleep at night?Ch.1
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Astrid Lindgren tells the story across Chapter 1.
🧠Knowledge Bank · How Lindgren Builds a Legend
Narrative Craft · How Lindgren Builds a LegendLindgren rarely tells us Pippi is extraordinary; she shows it through impossible action. This is characterization by deed — we learn who a character is by watching what she does. And the deeds are deliberately oversized: lifting a horse, out-wrestling grown men. That exaggeration for effect is called hyperbole, a favorite tool of the tall tale, where a hero’s strength is stretched far past nature to make us gasp and grin. Because the feats are physical, we feel them in our own bodies, imagining the strain that would tear real muscle. So the very science that makes her strength impossible is what makes the writing thrilling: Lindgren borrows the exact limits of the human body and then, with one bold sentence, cheerfully snaps them — a trick we call hyperbole.
Characterization
The author reveals a character through what they do and say — Pippi’s backward walk tells us more than any description could.
Hyperbole
Wild exaggeration used for effect — a girl who can lift a horse and out-tell any storyteller.
Contrast
Setting opposites side by side — tidy, obedient Tommy and Annika against wild, free Pippi.
1Lindgren shows who Pippi is mainly through ___.Ch.1
2Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1
Word choices:hyperbolecontrastsettingdialogue- some words will not be used
Calling herself the strongest girl in the world is , a wild exaggeration.
Placing tidy Tommy and Annika beside wild Pippi creates .
3Why does Lindgren make Tommy and Annika so polite and ordinary?Ch.1
4‘Hyperbole’ means describing things exactly as they really are.Ch.1
5Pippi’s tall tales about Egypt mostly reveal that she ___.Ch.1
6The mood of Chapter 1 is mainly ___.Ch.1
7Watching Pippi hoist her horse is an example of the author showing, not telling.Ch.1
8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1
Word choices:characterizationhyperbolerhymemoral- some words will not be used
Revealing Pippi through her actions and words is called .
9Pippi living with no grown-ups at all works in this story because ___.Ch.1
10When the narrator lists Pippi’s odd clothes piece by piece, the effect is to ___.Ch.1
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Weighing Pippi’s Freedom
Child Psychology · Weighing Pippi’s FreedomChapter 1 hands you a puzzle worth turning over slowly. Pippi has no parents watching, no bedtime, no one to tell her no — and her impossible strength means no grown-up can ever make her. Physical power and total freedom arrive together, which is exactly the daydream: to be strong enough that no rule can hold you. Yet Lindgren lets a shadow fall too. A girl who answers to no one also tucks herself into an empty house at night, missing a father lost at sea. So her freedom is real but not simple; strength buys independence, and independence carries a quiet cost. Thinking this through teaches you to admire a character while still noticing what she has quietly traded away — a balance of mind we call being thoughtful.
Think back over the chapter. Pippi arrives alone, carries her own suitcase of gold coins, cooks her own supper, and puts herself to bed — feet on the pillow, entirely satisfied. Next door, Tommy and Annika have everything Pippi lacks — parents, tidy clothes, proper manners — yet it is their lives that feel too quiet, and Pippi’s arrival that feels like a door swinging open.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Pippi can take care of herself without any grown-ups.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Pippi, or Tommy and Annika? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ PippiTommy and Annika ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Pippi’s mother died and her father was lost at sea→
Her father filled his sea chest with gold coins→
Pippi walks backward down the street→
Years of sailing the world with her father→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Lindgren gives Pippi a suitcase of gold coins because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
A House Called a Villa · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
On the edge of many European towns stands a kind of house called a villa — a roomy home that stands alone inside its own garden, rather than sharing walls with its neighbors. A hundred years ago, a villa on the outskirts of a small Swedish town would have had a wooden fence, fruit trees, and space for hens or even a horse. Because the house stood apart, a family — or one remarkable girl — could live there in almost complete freedom. Writers have long loved such houses. A villa with an overgrown garden is a perfect stage. It is private enough for secrets, big enough for adventures, and just close enough to town for curious neighbors to peek over the fence. When Astrid Lindgren needed a home for a heroine with no parents and her own peculiar way of doing everything, an old villa at the edge of town was the natural choice.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1According to the passage, what makes a villa different from other houses?SAT · Detail
2In the passage, “outskirts” means the ___.SAT · Words in Context
3A villa from a hundred years ago might have space for ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
4Why could a family live in a villa “in almost complete freedom”?TOEFL · Factual Information
5In the passage, “peculiar” is closest in meaning to ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
6According to the passage, why do writers love villas with overgrown gardens?TOEFL · Factual Information
7The passage says a villa is close enough to town for ___.SAT · Detail
8What is the passage mainly about?SAT · Central Ideas
9How does the passage connect to Chapter 1?SAT · Text Connections
10The author organizes the passage by ___.SAT · Text Structure & Purpose
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 1 “My Own Villa Villekulla”
Imagine you woke up tomorrow in a house that was entirely yours, like Pippi’s Villa Villekulla. Describe one whole day there. What would you eat, what rules would you keep or break, and which animal would live with you? Write at least 40 words.
You can start with: “The morning I moved into my own house…”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 1 Complete!
You finished Chapter 1 of Pippi Longstocking.
Here are your auto-graded results:
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points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Astrid Lindgren. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Astrid Lindgren’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
