I read Pippi as a child and loved it (read a couple of books…) But I haven’t decided myself for my kids…
Pippi lives in her own house, without any parents. She is very unorthodox. I don’t remember much about it. Oh, she doean’t go to school either… one chapter has her go to school (don’t remember if it was from pressure from an adult or what…) and she goes on her horse…. they are doing a spelling bee or something like that. She is asked “How do you spell …..? [don’t remember the word]. She spells it phonetically and therefore incorrectly, and is told that it is spelled ……. in the dictionary…. and her response was that she was asked how SHE spelled it, not the dictionary.
At another time (in the 2nd book?) her father (who she always said was a sailing captain who had gotten lost in the south seas and became the king of an island of natives) comes back (or sends his crew back?) and she was right… and she and her 2 friends that live next door go for months to live in the south seas. It seems to me that the mother of her friends was NOT going to let them go, but then the girl got sick and the doctor said she would benefit from the southern air/heat/sun…. There was stories of them pearl diving etc.
I remember them as lovely stories. Althoug Pippi is a little unrefined (hey, she is living all alone!) she had a very sweet heart and was absolutely a good friend to her friends. It seems to me (I might be wrong) that she was always polite to the adults… but had a childs logic (like I showed above with the spelling thing where she said “you asked how I spelled it”.
It probably is a book you need to decide for yourself though…. sorry!