Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
The Name is Longstocking, Pippi Longstocking
James Bond is no ordinary spy, and Pippi is no ordinary nine-year-old. She was raised sailing the ocean with her sea captain father (right up until the day he was blown overboard), and her early adventures clearly instilled her with a lot of independence and some serious skills, including the strength to lift a whole horse on her own. When she leaves the ship—because her father's, um, "missing"—one of the sailors calls her, "A remarkable child" (1.8). And when she takes up residence at her house, Villa Villekulla, her new neighbors and friends, Tommy and Annika, think she is the most remarkable girl they've ever seen. Turns out they're all correct.
Rising Action
Beat-Downs and Coffee-Talk
While introducing her new BFFs, Tommy and Annika, to such pastimes as "thing-finding" and holding coffee parties in trees, Pippi also manages to take on a bully, two policemen, a schoolteacher, a bull, and a couple of circus performers. She wins every time, but it becomes clearer with each conflict that Pippi is at odds with the society around her. At first, well-meaning adults attempt to contain her in a children's home or at school, but by the time the circus leaves town, they've given up the idea of taming Pippi, or even interacting with her.
Pippi, ever competent, easily handles two scheming burglars, but she has a harder time dealing with the adults at Mrs. Settergren's coffee party, which is, in a word, awkward. Unable to stay upstairs with her friends or make any headway with the ladies at the party, Pippi doesn't seem to fit in anywhere here, and it's kind of painful. Sure she gets the last word, but it's pretty obvious that as far as the adults are concerned, Pippi's gone beyond oddball and straight into pariah territory.
Climax
Fire to the Rescue
Pippi's on her own after the coffee party. Annika and Tommy, who are capable of blending in—or at least not standing out—in adult society, have gone to a tea party with their parents, and Pippi doesn't quite know what to do with herself. Eventually she heads into town and spots a house on fire. After she single-handedly rescues two boys who were pretty much goners in the eyes of the fire chief, the whole town cheers her, and we see that Pippi might have a place in this town after all.
Falling Action
Into the Double-Digits
Pippi's birthday comes around, and she invites Tommy and Annika over to celebrate her tenth. With the horse and Mr. Nilsson, of course.
Resolution
Don't You Worry
There are a few things that happen in this last chapter to let us know everything's going to be fine. First of all, Tommy and Annika's mom lets them go to Pippi's party. She even helps them get ready, so we know she's more or less forgiven Pippi's coffee-party behavior and that Tommy and Annika will still be allowed to play with their eccentric friend.
Second, Pippi finds a chest full of her dad's belongings—a few things to help comfort her (his nightshirt) and keep her safe (pistols and a sword). And finally, after her friends leave, Pippi calls out, "I'm going to be a pirate when I grow up. Are you?" These words show us that she's still the free spirit we met in the first chapter, and that she'll continue to come out on top.