YA late '70s/early '80s, set in Stockholm?; character named Astrid; orphaned teen living with older

I had a book years ago that I'm sure came from one of those Scholastic book orders. If I remember correctly, the main character had grown up near the sea, but her parents had recently died and she was forced to leave her beloved home to go live with her sister in Stockholm (I think). The name Astrid was involved, but I can't recall whether it was the author, the main character, or the sister. The main character, sister, and sister's husband all lived together in a small apartment. I think the sister was pregnant/had a baby and the brother in law was in medical school. He was definitely in school.

Thank you for any help in my quest to gut this book from the deep recesses of my forgetful mind.

Probably not the Pippi Longstocking books, by Astrid Lindgren, because I don't think Pippi ever lives in the city (or has a sibling?). But I've not read them, so I can't say for certain. Lindgren wrote other series and one-offs, too.

No, definitely not Pippi Longstocking. If you try web searching for books set in Sweden containing a character named Astrid, you'll just get a ton of hits about Astrid Lindgren and Pippi Longstocking.

This book was for a somewhat older audience. I quite enjoyed it around age 13/14. I thought about it after I posted and I'm fairly certain Astrid was either the main character (most likely) or her sister, and not the name of the author.

Right. Unfortunately, I didn't have any luck with excluding Stockholm/Sweden and just using 'Astrid' on Google Books Advanced, worldcat, or openlibrary.

I did find an adult novel, River of Dreams, about a woman who emigrates to Sweden. She has a daughter called Astrid.

Sorry that I couldn't be more help. Are you sure Sweden was the setting?

ETA: It might be worth inputting Weekly Reader Book Club in the search site box. Quite a few titles came up, but a cover or title might jump at you.

I did some tagmashes just to pull up books from LT. Maybe a cover or title will seem familiar:

Sweden + young adult: http://www.librarything.com/tag/Sweden,+young+adult

Stockholm + young adult: http://www.librarything.com/tag/Stockholm,+young+adult

Sweden + children's: http://www.librarything.com/tag/Sweden,+children%27s

Sweden + juvenile: http://www.librarything.com/tag/Sweden%2C+juvenile

Nothing relevant came up with a tagmash of Stockholm + sea + young adult, Nordic + fiction + young adult, or Sweden + sea + young adult.

Less relevant tag mash:

Stockholm + fiction: http://www.librarything.com/tag/Stockholm,+fiction

A Place of Her Own by Ann Mari Falk
http://www.librarything.com/work/179353

Touchstone: A Place of Her Own.

Out of curiosity, I pulled the record on worldcat. The only subject listed is Swedish fiction; it's not even classified as juvenile. No wonder searching on worldcat sometimes is difficult.

Glad MissSquish was here to help.

Thank you very much, both of you! That must be it! And no wonder I had such difficulty. Neither the main character nor her sister, or even the author, is named Astrid. Ha! I must have mixed up two separate memories. I see it was published in the early '60s. I got it from a Scholastic book order in the early '80s and it didn't occur to me that it was published 20 years prior.

Don't rely solely on worldcat. Very useful agreed, as is Google books, but subjects can be limited or none, same with summaries, and I too noticed some juvenile fiction isn't marked as such. Sometimes you need to search out of the box so to speak. Book reviews can be useful.

I once had a copy :-)

Yep, forgot to add that -- actually having read the book!! :)