Fresh Fields for Daisy

by Margaret J. Baker, Alicia Garcia de Lynam (Illustrator)

Daisy is a plaster shop window model with a sense of fun. The clothes she models always look a little rakish, with the hats awry and the handbags gaping open. Then, suddenly, the big store that has been Daisy's home is pulled down, and the pert and cheerful model finds a completely different situation in the middle of the country, where her talents are put to good use - and where she also makes a friend or two!

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Margaret Joyce Blake's Publications:
The Fighting Cocks, 1949;
Nonsense Said the Tortoise (in U.S. as Homer the Tortoise), 1949;
Four Farthings and a Thimble, 1950;
A Castle and Sixpence, 1951;
Benbow and the Angels, 1952;
The Family That Grew and Grew, 1952;
Treasure Trove, 1952;
Homer Sees the Queen, 1953;
The Young Magicians, 1954;
Lions in the Potting Shed (in U.S. as Lions in the Woodshed), 1954;
The Wonderful Wellington Boots, 1955;
Anna Sewell and Black Beauty, 1956;
Acorns and Aerials, 1956;
Bright High Flyer, 1957;
Tip and Run, 1958;
Homer Goes to Stratford, 1958;
The Magic Seashell, 1959;
The Birds of Thimblepins, 1960;
Homer in Orbit, 1961;
Into the Castle. 1962;
The Cats of Honeytown, 1962;
Away Went Galloper, 1962;
Castaway Christmas, 1963;
Cut Off from Crumpets, 1964;
The Shoe Shop Bears, 1964;
Homer Goes West, 1965;
Hannibal and the Bears, 1965;
Bears Back in Business, 1967;
Porterhouse Major, 1967;
Hi-Jinks Joins the Bears, 1970;
Snails' Place, 1970;
The Last Straw, 1971;
Boots and the Ginger Bears, 1972;
The Sand Bird, 1973;
Prickets Way, 1973;
Lock Stock and Barrel, 1974;
Home from the Hill, 1968;
Sand in Our Shoes, 1976

Reviews

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daisy is a plaster model in the window of Clarence's, an old-fashioned department store. She models all the smartest clothes. She does not take her modelling job seriously enough for the other models, who disapprove of her frivolity: "Harvey, who modelled sports jackets and sweaters with leather shoulder-pieces, disapproved of her especially. Shop models should never move even an eyelash, yet he suspected that Daisy would toss her head and move her jointed arms and wrist even when they had been set carefully in position. Expensive summer hats, meant for Ascot or a garden party at Buckingham palace itself, slipped rakishly to one side of Daisy's curly head, Lace gloves slid off her slim fingers and handbags dangled unclasped on her wrists. Daisy didn't care. She refused to take anything seriously, and giggled. Once she winked at the man who cleaned the ship windows. He stood and stared and the suds dried on the glass so that it had to be polishdd all over again." When the store, too expensive and old fashioned to survive, is closed down, the other models are sold, but daisy unfortunatey suffers an accident while being moved, one leg is broken, so nobody wants her. Left in a storeroom while the shop is demolished, she is rescued by some children, and after several adventrues, is bought at a car boot sale by Binny, a little girl who is staying on a farm. daisy finds a new career as a scarecrow, but her adventures are not over yet.
This is a charming, humorous story. Daisy is a delightful character, brave, cheerful, and optimistic about whatever happens to her. Who wouldn't want a scarecrow like this?