puffin Classics 시리즈 중의 하나이죠. 워낙 유명한 책이라 구입하게 되었습니다. 어렸을 적 번역서로만 읽었던 이 책을 다시 한 번 읽어볼 기회를 찾던 중에 인터파크 검색중에 눈에 띄어 사게되었는데요.
빠른 배송과 저렴한 가격이 마음에 쏙 듭니다.
물론 삽화가 더 그려졌다면 더 만족스러웠겠지만요. 일단 책은 페이퍼백으로 가벼우면서 어휘수준도 쉬워 읽기가 쉽습니다. 아이들의 눈에 들기에는 약간 모자란 감이 있지만 읽어주면서 내용을 알려주면 훨씬 재미있어 할 것 같습니다. 
저는 이 책을 어렸을 적 아주 재미있게 읽었던 기억이 있습니다. 명작이란 시간이 흘러도 항상 그 자리에서 큰 역할을 하지요. 키다리 아저씨는 크게 기억을 하지만 세세하고 섬세한 줄거리는 사실 기억이 잘 나지 않아 다시 한 번 읽고 싶었습니다.
어렸을 그 때와는 다른 느낌이지만 그래도 다시 읽을 가치는 충분합니다. 
Daddy-long-legs는 원래 다리긴 거미를 가리키지만 후견인의 긴 다리를 보고 주인공인 주디가 붙인 이름이죠. 후견인의 도움으로 대학까지 가게된 주디의 성장이 편지글의 형식으로 펼쳐집니다. 독특한 형식과 글 속의 유머는 글을 읽는 내내 독자를 편안하고 즐겁게 하는 것 같습니다.  

Daddy Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen.

Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people’s cast-off clothes. Jerusha’s unusual first name was selected by the matron off a grave stone (she hates it and uses "Judy" instead), while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.

One day, after the asylum’s trustees have made their monthly visit, Judy is informed by the asylum’s dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Judy must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.

Judy catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him "Daddy Long-Legs." She attends a women’s college, but the name and location are never identified; however, men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it is certainly on the East Coast. The college is almost certainly based on the author’s alma mater, Vassar College, judging from college traditions mentioned. She illustrates her letters with childlike line drawings, also created by Jean Webster.