Rasmus and the Vagabond

by Astrid Lindgren

Book Overview

After running away from the orphanage, nine-year-old Rasmus finds the outside world cold and unfriendly until he meets "Paradise Oscar" who helps him find a new home. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014032304X
• ISBN13: 9780140323047
• Release Date: August 1987
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.5" x 5.0"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Great book

I read this book several times when I was young. It brings together 2 people who society has forgotten. They both turn out to be great human beings. This book has adventure suspense and a great ending.

I am a child again with dreams that never end!!!!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Its like a kid running off and joining the circus. Like going to the animal shelter and always seeeing the puppys or kittens getting to go home. This will take you back to simpler times, that I miss. I felt this is a great book for any kid to read. I read this at least 20-30 times and still am reading it! A+ A+ A+

My Favorite Book as a Kid

I must have read this book 100 times as a kid. I remember checking it out from my school library so many times that the librarian told me I should go out and buy a copy to have forever. I wish I would have taken her advice as it is now out of print. I recently found a copy at our public library and had the pleasure to read it aloud to my 7 and 9 year old boys. It was great to see them enjoy this tale as much as I had. I would read two chapters a night and every night it was the same old thing... "Just one more chapter Dad???" Reading about Rasmus and Oscar again after all of these years was like meeting up with old, long-lost friends.

Definitely a favorite

This delightful book was one of my favorites as a child, read again and again. I used to wish I were an orphan so I could run away from the orphanage and have Rasmus' adventures! As an adult I bought myself a copy and have read and enjoyed it again. I always found this book and Mischievous Meg much more enjoyable than the Pippi books, which are so popular. To the reader who is looking for a copy: try ebay!

Solid Children's story

Astrid Lindgren's book "Rasmus and the Vagabond is one of the strongest literary memories of my childhood. My family had a copy on our shelves for years until recently and I have been seeking a copy everywhere. Not just for nostalgia's sake, but out of a love for the writing. Rasmus is an orphan living a state home with a somewhat tyrrannical staff. He is made to pick nettles for the orphanage's chickens one day and finds a silver coin. This is a portentious event for Rasmus as he strikes out from the orphanage after resigning himself to never being taken in as an adoptee. On the road he finds himself lonely and sleeping in a hayloft with unknown companionship. The "Vagabond," discovers rasmus and treats him to a share of his breakfast and then a share of the wandering life of a vagabond as they run into adventure after adventure. Their discovery that they share a common stigma for run of the mill people for noone likes a hobo or an orphan. Out of this coincidence, grows a strong bond that ends in a scene of home that both wanderers not only need, but dream of. This is a book well written and exciting to the last with the elements of surprise, suspense, and comedy to capture the minds and spirits of adults and children alike