Rascal: The true story of a pet Raccoon

by Sterling North, John Schoenherr (Illustrator)

148 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1963

About the author

Thomas Sterling North was an American author of books for children and adults, including 1963's bestselling Rascal. Surviving a near-paralyzing struggle with polio in his teens, he grew to young adulthood in the quiet southern Wisconsin village of Edgerton, which North transformed into the "Brailsford Junction" setting of several of his books.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling...

Reviews

[Victoria Foote-Blackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story set in southern Wisconsin during World War I, that stayed on the bestseller list for weeks after it was published in the mid-1960's. At that time, it was adored for the charming antics of a baby racoon adopted by the narrator, the author Sterling North himself. The account of the child whose mother has died and whose father is often absent, is punctuated by amusing incidents laid on a palimpsest of mourning the loss of his mother, the absence of his older brother in France, and eventually his own childhood.

Soon after the period covered in this story North caught polio as a teenager and was incapacitated for three years, only learning to walk again later. Such an event could only have sharpened North's sense of a boyhood lost. A vivid joy laced with sweet regret slowly infuses the turning pages.

The novel memoir still communicates this story of a boy and his indeed rascally racoon in a light, affectionate manner. Yet, since now more than a century has passed since the young Sterling North recounts these events, his descriptions of life in rural America take on an added poignancy of a world and way of life we have lost. Accounts of farming by hand, draft horses, local fairs and an uncle fury over the arrival of cars enriches a text that is already gratifying in its own right. Like wine, Rascal has aged magnificently, and should be a pleasure for children ages 5 and up, and for any reader wanting to peak at a much more innocent bygone era.