Miss Hickory

Miss Hickory

Caroline Sherwin Bailey

lithographs by Ruth Chrisman Gannett 1946

Definitely an odd book, originally published in 1946, but maybe that was why we liked it.  Carolyn Sherwin Bailey even won a Newberry Award for it.    

Miss Hickory is a doll made out of an apple wood twig with a hickory nut head.  When she gets left behind in the yard she learns to fend for herself, setting up home in an old robin's nest and making new clothes using pine needles to sew.  Soon she is acclimating to her new life out in nature and the animal characters she meets (including Squirrel who may want to be her friend or eat her head!).  She can be a cranky fussbudget at times, but she is resourceful and thoughtful.  Although she meets an unusual end, there's something sweetly charming about her story.

Miss Suzy

What better way to come home from a tough day of middle school than to curl up on the couch with a picture book?  Yesterday afternoon we read this one, loving Arnold Lobel's work as always.   Miss Suzy the squirrel has a sweet little home complete with acorn cups and a moss carpet at the top of an oak tree.  But when a rowdy band of red squirrels forces her out, Suzy must find a new home and make some special friends in the process.

Miss Suzy

Miriam Young

pictures by Arnold Lobel

The Squirrel Wife

The Squirrel Wife

Philippa Pearce

design and illustration by Derek Collard 1972

Adorned with beautiful lino-cuts by Derek Collard, The Squirrel Wife recalls a medieval fairytale with a story of love and loss and transformation.  One night Jack the swineherd meets the magical green people who live deep in the forest.  As a reward for saving one of them, he is given a gold ring to put on a newborn squirrel who in time will become his squirrel wife and show him the ways of the forest.

Jack had never seen her before.  She was small for a woman, graceful and exceedingly nimble in her movement.  Her hair was brown; her eyes were brown, and what made them remarkable was their strange, wild look of watchfulness.

Then with joy Jack remembered the promise of the lord of the green people.  He took the hand she held out towards him, for he knew that already he loved his squirrel-wife, as she loved him.  They would live together always , as man and wife.  They determine not to go back to Jack's cruel brother, but to settle far from him, within the forest.  The forest was the only place for a squirrel-wife.