How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In that house lived a father and a mother and two charming children, a boy and a girl. The boy's name was Tommy and the girl's Annika. They were good, well brought up, and obedient children. Tommy […] always did exactly what his mother told him to do. Annika never fussed when she didn't get her own way […]." (1.10)
Tommy and Annika have a bit more supervision in their lives than Pippi does. They're definitely being groomed by their parents to fit into polite society, and they are indeed very pleasant—and charming—children. (No wonder they run off to Pippi's every chance they get.)
Quote #2
"What are we going to do now?" asked Tommy.
"I don't know what you are going to do," said Pippi, "but I know I can't lie around and be lazy. I am a Thing-Finder, and when you're a Thing-Finder you don't have a minute to spare." (2.18-19)
One of the best things about being a kid is being able to make up simple games like this and have hours of fun playing them. Pippi's thing-finding mission is such a great example of that ability we have in our youth to see ordinary things in extraordinary ways.
Quote #3
They went on to tell her that some nice people in the town were arranging for her to get into a children's home.
"I already have a place in a children's home," said Pippi.
"What?" asked one of the policemen. "Has it been arranged already then? What children's home?"
"This one," said Pippi haughtily. "I am a child and this is my home. Therefore it is a children's home, and I have room enough here, plenty of room." (3.8-11)
This is particularly funny because Pippi has a great point. Her house is a children's (or at least a child's) home in the most literal sense, whereas the children's home where the police and townspeople want to put her is most likely run by adults. And of course, as Pippi points out, there simply wouldn't be enough room for her (and her monkey and her horse and her imagination) in a home like that.