Pros: Invigorates the imagination and encourages contemplation of behavior and consequences
Cons: Hickory nuts are edible
The Bottom Line: The lessons in life that are offered in this tale are so simple and yet critical for survival in this world, especially in this current environment of materialism and complexity.
kimmiko's Full Review: Carolyn Sherwin Bailey - Miss Hickory
This is is my contribution to the Childrens Book Write Off which has been organized to celebrate the 400th review written by our own inimitable forkids. Please be sure to read each of these wonderful writers reviews, as I'm sure they will reveal some fascinating and valuable insights and provide you with new ideas for inspiring your own children as they learn to appreciate the magical journeys on which books can take them. As soon as you finish reading this, please continue reading on down the list. This entire list is accessible in a link form, from the main books page, on the left under "Welcome to Books" title.
The other participants are:
Leah, Caconti, Cornelia, Conradd, Stonehousellc, Grouch, Auntnono, Halfsweet, Taurusmoon, DoubleCoog, Caravan70, Kcfoxy, Mshawpyle, Sleestakk, Kchowell, Emlin, CurtisEdmonds, Fdknight, WorkingMomof2, Expono, Bonies7, ErgoPropterHoc, Pogomom, Redlass, Poseidon, GraceF , Jrk, Andy, and last,but never least, forkids.
When Forkids sent out the initial offering to join in on this write off, I instantly agreed, but felt something troubling me waaay at the back of my memory. Children's books bring an instant smile to my face, but I slowly began to realize that I have absolutely no memory of my own childhood books.
As hard as I strain my memory I cannot squeeze out the slightest image of reading or being read to as a child. Instead, I get visions of lying in tall grass watching clouds transform themselves into imaginary creatures, or moments of fragrant shock as I sucked on honeysuckle flowers while hiding in thick tangled vines. . Wild persimmons, hickory nuts and butterflies were my quarry on many a summer day as I wandered the dogwood flowered forests. My night time was filled with the wonder of stars, satellites or shadows on the wall. As soon as I was old enough to be allowed outside at the crack of dawn before anyone else in the house was up, I could be found down at the pond feeding ducks , catching tadpoles barehanded, and combing the nearby woods for pottery shards. When I got older, I learned to fetch golf balls out of the pond down at fairway 6, and was paid handsomely for my efforts. Books just don't remain in my memory, though I'm certain I was introduced to many as a child.
In my early teens I discovered that our local drugstore would dispose of unsold magazines by tearing off the front cover and then throwing them in the garbage out behind the store. This is where I found the steamy and tantalizing "Detective" magazines. I read those, cover to cover, taking in all the gory and lurid details, as well as the risque photos. Well, for 1963, it was risque to see a woman in a torn shirt with bra visible. Pretty tame stuff by today's standards. And then there was, of course, the highly popular Nancy Drew mysteries with the always predictable endings. I read my share of them, but soon began to
hate her with a jealous rage for her little roadster and the lawyer father who allowed her so much freedom as she got herself in and out of predicaments with her 'chums.' My boredom took me to higher levels, as I, somehow, stumbled upon, read and was captivated by the just-released, first novel, of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. "One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich", is the brutal depiction of life in a Siberian labor camp. Not easy stuff for a a young girl of 12, but by now I had passed the threshold of childrens literature and was headed for more serious books.
It wasn't until my last year of college that I was introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh. I'd had enough of serious books and was hungry for frivolity. I devoured every word of every book written by AA Milne. That silly old bear is actually quite wise and humble and endearing, and he will always be my favorite. The Wind in the Willows was a gift on my 30th birthday, and again, I fell entranced with the personalities of these talking animals. The theme of talking animals persisted as I lost myself in the land of Narnia, starting with The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe.
And then, I became a mother! It was perfect timing for me, for childrens books were now a part of my daily life, and with my daughter gurgling and dazzling me all the while, I read and read and read to her. We explored hundreds of Golden books, classics, Mother Goose, puzzle books, books in German, books in Spanish, books in gibberish and of, course, Dr Zuess, Pippi Longstocking, and all of Maurice Sendak's fun and wild work. I read and reread all of our favorites, many times. If you read to your children frequently, you know that you have to be on the lookout for new books all of the time, and I was always on the prowl, everywhere I went.
I found Miss Hickory on a neglected bookshelf at my mother's house. She was a 1946 hardbound darling among a bunch of dusty 60's paperback novels, mostly crime thrillers, WW2 novels and early feminists like Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Doris Lessing. Upon opening it I was tickled to see a lithograph of a skinny creature with human features, made from an apple-wood twig, a hickory nut head, and dressed in a proper checkered dress with apron and a ruffled hat that tied on under her chin. Compared to the apple she is standing by, I would guess her height at about 4-5". Her story is delightfully rich in the lessons of life, for animals as well as human. Again, I was drawn to a story of talking animals (and twigs) and the rich details of their lives in the forest. The drawings continue with each chapter, illustrating the various animals and landscapes of the forest. They are simple, but richly expressive.
Miss Hickory was created as a doll for a little girl named Ann. She lived in a small house made of corn cobs which was built underneath the lilac bush. When autumn arrived, Ann and the rest of the family boarded up the house and returned to the city for the winter, leaving Miss Hickory to fend for herself among the other animals. Being the tough 'nut' that she is, it doesn't take long for her to find a better home, sew warmer clothes from pine needles and leaves, and store up seeds, nuts, and rose hips for her winter cupboard. There are lessons in sensibility and survival throughout her story. Young Squirrel gets chastised for squandering his stash of nuts and forgetting where he has buried those he wanted to save for another time. The fact that he is constantly eyeing Miss Hickory's nut head as his next meal is the supreme lesson in trust.
Barnyard and wild animals mingle in this tale. Their personalities take on both human and animal qualities, depending on the lesson that is conveyed by their story. When Doe is killed by a hunter, Fawn becomes 'sister' to the Wild-Heifer and learns to survive with the barnyard animals. Grumpy old Bull Frog decides to leave the chaos of the pond for the quieter and solitary Third Brook, but soon learns the value of companionship when Miss Hickory rescues him from freezing in the ice.
Miss Hickory intervenes to help the hen pheasants form a Ladies Aid Society after the cocks have abandoned them for the winter. They learn from her how to gather and store corn and quilt leaves together for a warm bed, creating at the same time a small community of females surviving together. I began to consider if the placement of this book among the feminists was perhaps justified after all.
Throughout the story the text is richly descriptive. As she is hunting for materials to make her winter wardrobe, this is the scene:
The woods were full of lovely stuffs for her sewing. Velvety leaves not yet dried and colored rose,gold, scarlet and russet. Soft beautiful mosses of many different kinds: furry ones, that grew close to the ground; trailing ones; upstanding feathery ones like plumes. and each moss was green and everlasting. The tiny brown cones of the larch trees made excellent buttons. The soft lining of the fern fronds made Miss Hickory's winter underwear.
Many other animal characters add to the story line, and each offers another valuable lesson. Throughout her life, Miss Hickory expresses herself with honesty and dignity, though she can be a bit snippy at times. She's cautious and sensible, but willing to take risks. Crow, her friend, returns in the early Spring and offers her a flight on his back. With breathless abandon, she climbs on his back:
So, Crow flew in a great wingspread, high, low, round about, here and there, carrying Miss Hickory so steadily that she had not a moment of airsickness. Snow a foot deep still whitened the top of Temple Mountain, but at the foot a rose-pink haze lay in lovely color. That was the budding of the red maple trees. In the lee of the mountain there hung a golden curtain, as pale yellow as a new moon. That was the flowering of the willows. The earth was a checkerboard of farms marked off by their gray stone walls and patterned by brown furrows.
As she takes risks and lets go of fear, she frees herself and accepts her natural fate. The ending took me by surprise, but you'll find yourself applauding because it is perfect.
My daughter was as entranced as I with the characters, descriptions, and life dramas that unfold as they do in life. The lush and descriptive writing was inspiring to us both, for it paints an easy picture for the imagination to grasp. The personalities and character flaws represented in this story are true to life. There is no harsh morality suggested, as everything unfolds in nature's way, as it does in real life. Everybody has a purpose, regardless of their popularity, and the cycles of life will continue to spin in every life form. The author's writing style is easy to read, inspiring in its creative energy and encourages contemplation of life's decisions.
In researching for this review I learned that this book is the winner of the 1947 Newberry Medal. The author is Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, and the lithographs were done by Ruth Gannett. Other books available by Ms. Bailey include "For the Children's Hour, Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings, and Pioneer Art in America." All are available at Amazon.com. Other books by this author include " Children of the Handcrafts, Enchanted Village, Finnegan II: His Nine Lives, and The Little Red Schoolhouse." I do believe that these last few are no longer in print.
Now, Be sure to follow up with the other brilliant reviews being posted in this category. And remember, children's books are for every age!!
Miss Hickory, "a country woman whose body was an applewood twig and whose head was a hickory nut," must find a way to survive the fierce New Hampshire...More at Alibris
Miss Hickory is very worried. Her owner has moved to Boston, and how can Miss Hickory survive a harsh New Hampshire winter all alone? After all, she i...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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