Twig

by Elizabeth Orton Jones

After she is made tiny by magic, Twig finds friendship and adventure with Elf, the Fairy Queen, and the Sparrow family.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Fantasy, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Picture Books, Classics

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Elizabeth Orton Jones was an American children's author and illustrator, born to an artistic and literary family. Her father was violinist George Roberts Jones and her mother pianist and writer Jessie Orton Jones. Her great-grandfather, Joseph Russell Jones, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, was minister to Belgium under President Ulysses S. Grant. Her grandmother was a professional pianist and her grandfather owned a bookstore.

She grew up with two siblings in a home filled with music, reading aloud, and encouragement to draw, think, and imagine. She attended House in the Pines, a private high school for girls, where she won a prize for English composition. She received a degree from the University of Chicago, and went to France to study painting at the École des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau and the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Back in the USA, she studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago School. In 1937, she wrote and illustrated her first book, Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins, using her experiences in France as material.

In 1945, Jones won the Caldecott Medal for her illustrations in Prayer for a Child (1944), written by Rachel Field. Her edition of Little Red Riding Hood, published by Little Golden Books in 1948, became a classic. During her career, she wrote and illustrated some twenty books for children. She also created murals for the Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield, New Hampshire and a panel in the children's room of the University of New Hampshire library.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had you heard of Elizabeth Orton Jones before seeing this book? If so, your familiarity was probably with her lovely illustrations in Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field, which won the 1945 Caldecott Medal as the year's most distinguished picture book. Elizabeth Orton Jones is an exceptional artist, but Twig demonstrates that her talents don't end there. This is a novel as multifaceted and insightful as some of the best in children's literature, the brainchild of a writer capable of transforming an anecdote about an imaginative girl in her urban backyard into a feast for the senses that helps unlock our own wealth of imagination if we've misplaced the key. Twig doesn't have rolling meadows to run around in, or carefully maintained suburban streets or vast mountain ranges or the clever, clean symmetry of an affluent cityscape. Twig, a young girl without siblings or nearby friends, has her creativity and a wish from the heart for a story to inhabit, a story to look back on fondly when she's grown. She is the childhood incarnation of Elizabeth Orton Jones, who discovered that the power of story is unlimited in those willing to nurture it, to believe anything is possible if you can conceive of and imagine it through to the end. We, her readers, are lucky enough to be invited along on her exciting personal journey.

We see the setting of Twig's story even before page one. The rear of her four-story apartment house is drawn in loving detail opposite the title page: the zigzag stairs leading down to the alley out back, the buildings pressing close on either side, the fence enclosing a makeshift backyard for Twig to play in. By the fence sits Old Girl, a stray cat, and past the fence is Old Boy, a tired workhorse who sleeps all he can between shifts, and sometimes during. From the illustration alone we can tell this is a sacred place for Twig. There isn't much to be entertained by back here, so Twig has set up an old tomato can on the ground as a rudimentary fairy house. The can has a split down the side for a front door, and Twig has spruced up the interior to host the proper fairy if he or she should happen along. There's even a little creek running beside it from the apartment house's drainpipe, and a dandelion for a splash of warm color. Twig settles in to wait for her fairy.

Mrs. Sparrow, who lives with her husband and four eggs in a nest on the drainpipe, finds a fairy-sized humanoid on the steps of the public library while on an outing. Elf is his name, and he'd be glad to inhabit Twig's fairy house. Using his book of magic, Elf transforms Twig to the same size he is, and they make quick work fashioning the tomato can into a comfortable residence. Twig and Elf don't agree on every decor decision, and certainly not on every guest who should be allowed in the house, but not everything has to be gotten right on the first try. Elf brings home some fantastic surprises, including a little set of wings that allows Twig to fly above her apartment house without Sparrow or the Mrs. having to take her up. When Sparrow disappears long enough to worry Mrs. Sparrow, Twig and Elf volunteer to watch over the eggs, keeping them warm while their mother searches for their father. And the Sparrows aren't done importing guests to Twig's backyard. A visiting fairy Queen and a great magician offer to show Twig and Elf parts of the world beyond their imagination. There are no bounds to the fantasy created in Twig's backyard, and all the companionship she could want is right here between the back of her apartment house and the rickety old fence. All stories end, but the ones that settle into our heart and affirm our deepest desires are never really over. They remain like a distant star, lighting the darkness so we're never alone again. One star makes all the difference.

I could write on and on about Twig. Every episode in it contains subtle truths about imagination and hoping for the future, written in pretty and charming prose. Where did Elf come from? Tiny people don't materialize on library steps every day, and there's a reason why Elf showed up at the right moment for Mrs. Sparrow to meet him. Elf was destined to be in Twig's story, just as he was to be part of his last story, about a shoemaker and his wife who scarcely had the resources to live. Elf relates that experience to Twig, and it's nothing like the "Elves and the Shoemaker" retread she expects; the story ran off the rails weirdly, everything going wrong and spoiling the possibility for a happy ending. Sad, desperate, and cross with the shoemaker over what he wanted to wish for from the elf, the man's wife wishes she could start the story all over. A peculiar ending for a fairy tale, but it plays a huge role in what happens next for Twig and Elf. Twig is pleased with the knickknacks Elf retrieves to decorate the tomato can house...until he brings a pet. A cute pet. Wait...what, cute? Elf is tickled pink to haul a squirmy insect named Chummie to his new tin house, but Twig is not thrilled. Chummie is a cockroach. Elf has taught him to roll over, and he loves giving the bug big hugs. Elf proudly shows how Chummie follows him all over the house, scurrying after him on his tiny legs. Disgusted, Twig hurls plastic dinnerware at Chummie until he flees the tomato can, and screams at the cockroach to stay out. Elf is too disappointed in Twig to say a word. He walks out after Chummie and they disappear into the distance, Twig's upbeat fantasy gone horribly wrong in a matter of minutes. How did it sour so fast? Twig weeps over her lost companion, angry as the shoemaker's wife had been. It's surprising and bittersweet when Twig sets the table, straightens up the house, and the story restarts from just before Elf brought Chummie, only this time, he doesn't. Oh, how we would love to be able to set our own story right that easily, erasing mistakes that mar the course of our life. It's poignant to see Twig reclaim her friendship with Elf that way, knowing our stories usually aren't that simple to fix.

What does Elf return with instead of Chummie? A pair of yellow wings that grant them freedom to soar like the Sparrows, and elevated perspective on Twig's backyard and the miniature estate she built for her and Elf. "Oh, wasn't this lovely? Wasn't it lovely having wings?" To move unmoored from the earth, going where your fancy takes you, choosing what you want to do without conventional limitations? Twig enjoys being Elf's size, and the sights and sensations that come with it. "Oh! Wasn't this lovely? Wasn't it lovely being little enough to lie on a dandelion leaf?" Preoccupation with growing up is childhood's general rule, but what about appreciating being small enough to do things you can't when you're older? You have a short time to enjoy these aspects of life before they're beyond reach. The wings take off on their own when Twig tries to transfer them to Elf, and the bright yellow flying apparatus vanishes into the sky. Twig wishes she and Elf could have flown forever, but rather than be depressed, she thinks how wonderful of Elf it was to bring her the wings in the first place, and she can't remain sad when she focuses on that. "Thanks, Elf!" she whispers into one of his pointed ears for only him to hear, and those two words are powerful in the story's context. When we gain wings and eventually lose them, it's vital not to forget the elation of the days when we weren't bound by gravity. Losing the wings doesn't mean they were never ours at all.

The story shifts when Sparrow returns, and has the fairy Queen with him. She's no taller than Elf or Twig, and brings a sense of elegance to the backyard. Old Girl, the cat, sings a concert for the Queen, who gracefully compliments the feline's melodious meowing. It is an honor to be with the Queen, and her dignity and wisdom influence Twig and Elf for the good. Of course, a Queen is bound to have illustrious visitors, and Twig and Elf are ecstatic at the arrival of Lord Buzzle Cobb-Webb and his Royal Magical Cobb-Webb Kerchief. The Queen has a position for Twig in her magical realm, and Lord Buzzle Cobb-Webb has one for Elf in a land where elves are constantly needed in fairy tales; the two enchanted beings are here to usher Twig's narrative to an end, and that's not a bad thing. As Twig does, we may wish our ideal story stretched on eternally in comfort and peace so we would never have to live with less, but the Queen assures her there's solace in an ending. "But ends are also beginnings, you know. Every single story has a beginning at its end." You may be able to reboot if the middle goes wrong, as Twig did for the Chummie incident, but even favorite stories must end. That's the only way for a fresh story to emerge on the canvas of our life, coloring us with new hope, relationships, and a vision of the future more sensational than we could imagine before our previous story. Profound loss is balanced out by a new set of blessings we may have not have had room for before the loss. Life can be lonesome and we're not sure what enduring effect we have on the world, but our story matters, Twig realizes at the end of this book as she looks into the darkening sky. "Oh! Wasn't this lovely? Wasn't this a perfectly lovely end? It was like waiting for the story to begin all over again! And it was a little like something else, too. It was a little like making a wish, and having the wish come true...She looked and looked. And pretty soon she saw a little tiny star, no bigger than a toothpaste top, come out right above the back yard. She saw it come out and begin to twinkle, all by itself. Why! It wasn't evening yet. There weren't any other stars around. There was nothing around except plain, ordinary sky. But the little star kept twinkling. And—somehow—the sky didn't seem so plain and ordinary any more. Why! Even a little star no bigger than a toothpaste top made quite a difference—a little star, twinkling all by itself, made a difference in the whole sky!" Our lives and the lives of the ones we love matter because they illuminate the sky even if only for a short while, casting a hopeful glow over everything their light touches. As long as we keep their stories alive, there's a fresh beginning right around the corner, where the laughter and affection we shared will live on as vivid as ever.

People who know the history of children's literature know Elizabeth Orton Jones's artwork, but not nearly enough are aware that her writing was just as beautiful. Twig is on par with the works of Noel Streatfeild, Robert Lawson, and Beverly Cleary for its emotional and thematic depth. I stand by the selection of Elizabeth Janet Gray's Adam of the Road for the 1943 Newbery Medal, but Twig was a worthy candidate, and I could easily have seen it being awarded a Newbery Honor for that year. A novel like this is rare and special for its re-readability; I could read Twig two or three times a year for life and not grow tired of its sprightly spirit, ageless wisdom, and tender, subtle commentary on the human condition. I love this book, and I don't say that lightly. Thank you, Elizabeth Orton Jones, for a gift so personal and precious.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a teenager, I often find myself thinking, with pricking eyes, of younger me. Such an odd little girl, so possessive of her dolls, so big-eyed in old photographs. It seems like I was her just yesterday. Where did she go, I wonder?

And then I'll read a book like Twig and think, oh, right, here she is. She never left.

When I was eight or nine, Twig just sort of got to me. Don't ask me why. Maybe it was the little fairy house with the stick-of-gum bridge that I wanted so badly to walk over, the shiny paper that she used as a mirror. I never looked at a stick of gum the same way after that. And I remember that her habit of saying "honestly" became mine for quite a while. "Honestly, Elf!"

Twig is a city girl living in what they call a simpler time--the iceman comes in a horse-drawn buggy to deliver the ice to her apartment building, and everyone listens to the radio. We don't see a lot of "everyone," though, those neighbors in her apartment building. Just a glimpse at the beginning and a glimpse at the end. There is a traveling vacuum-cleaner salesman with a worried wife and a bald-headed baby. There's a teenaged girl named Blondie, golden-haired, who's listening to a man talk about fox furs on the radio while she gets all ready to go out with her boyfriend. Little Twig is in awe of her. There's a mysterious, eccentric old gentleman--think Professor Kirk from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Twig says hello to everyone and hangs around in the tiny city backyard with no company but the iceman's horse and a stray cat she's called Old Girl. Intent on seeing fairies, she's taken an upside-down can with an opening made by the can opener--just like a door--and arranged it like a house. Reading the book now that I'm older, I can't help but think of a more recent favorite of mine, Coraline. Both books have main characters who encounter strange things when they wander innocently around their apartments and play in the yard, although Coraline descends into terrifying madness and Twig remains sweet as old-fashioned stick candy throughout. At any rate, the fairy house has a river running past it (hose-water), a stick-of-gum bridge, and a broom in a corner, made from a bird's feather.

Mrs. Sparrow, who lives in the backyard's one large tree, gets off her eggs to search for her flyaway husband, pitying Twig, who, she thinks, doesn't have much chance of seeing a fairy--not in the city. Then Mrs. Sparrow stumbles on an elf. Named Elf. He's a bright-eyed imp who carries a magic book under his arm and dresses in potato skins. Since he has nowhere to go, Mrs. Sparrow offers to take him to Twig's house.

Elf isn't exactly the fairy Twig was expecting, but Twig's still thrilled, and hardly a chapter has gone by before she's convinced him to turn her into a fairy. He manages to shrink her to his size with some magic words from his book ("Soda-soda-sarsaparilla!"), although creating wings for her is a little too much for his powers. Disappointed by this, Twig, like a true old-time girl, runs into the house and sweeps until she feels better. I can see the feminists sneering, but honestly (as Twig would say), what's wrong with using frustration as a force to accomplish something? She could be yelling at Elf.

Not that she doesn't do a little yelling at Elf during the course of the story, but for the most part they get along well, and they settle down in the tin-can house just like Peter and Wendy. Elf brings her toothpaste caps to use as dishes and whistles carelessly. Twig has to know all about Elf and whatever fairyland surrounds him, so he tells her about how he used to live in a story--a story that he attempts to tell her, although she interrupts a lot. He tries to clean the house using magic and makes an even bigger mess. He tries to keep a cockroach as a pet, much to Twig's dismay.

Whereas Peter Pan implies that the Darlings lived in Never Land for several months, Twig seems to have all her adventures over the course of a single, long day. Maybe the logic is that being tiny makes a day bigger. And Twig's tinyness does add a certain ambiance to what is essentially a story about two kids playing house. The author has a little girl's love for things in miniature--those toothpaste-cap dishes, for instance--and it's this that enables her to think of things like Elf bringing Twig "a set of wings" with "six little points" that she can fasten them to her dress with. That set of wings is a butterfly. Oh, how I wish I was small enough to tie myself to one.

The bald baby birds hatch , and Mr. Sparrow finally comes home. He's an obnoxious, lovable little guy who shouts just like the announcer on Blondie's radio earlier in the story, and with him is a fairy, a more fairy-like sort than Elf. Out of concern for Twig's plight, you see, Mr. Sparrow went all the way to Fairyland and brought back the Queen.

The Queen is polite and charming, and she looks just like Blondie. She wears a "smart little brown fur" which crawls away when Elf touches it (it's a caterpillar), and she listens while Old Girl the cat howls out an impressive concert atop a garbage can. Then a fairy magician shows up from Fairyland in search of the Queen, and he recognizes Elf as a "young whipper-snapper" he's seen before. (Incidentally, this book introduced me to that expression "young whipper-snapper".) Elf needs to learn some more magic, and the magician's more than ready to teach him. So everyone rides off to Fairyland, but Twig decides to stay behind at the last minute. She has parents, and they might miss her.

Now grown back to normal size, Twig talks to the neighbors again. The Professor Kirk guy tells her that his nephew is visiting tomorrow, a nephew who happens to be a lover of magic tricks, and Twig daydreams, happy in the knowledge that her story isn't over.

Yes, it's one of those Wizard-of-Oz "and-you-were-there-and-you-and-you" things, but it's pulled off beautifully, with an eye for the little details.

The illustrations are old-fashioned, gorgeous, and drawn by the author. It's a simple story, but it has very mind-capturing details which, as you can tell, stuck with me for years.

I beg you, if you miss your younger self, read this book. It made me little again, and it might just do the same for you.

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was nothing around except plain, ordinary sky. But the little star kept twinkling. And--somehow--the sky didn't seem so plain and ordinary any more. Why! Even a little star no bigger than a toothpaste top made quite a difference--a little star, twinkling all by itself, made a difference in the whole sky!

Twig is that little twinkling star. Her imagination turns the backyard into a land where anything can happen. A rich cast of characters acts out a beautiful story which begins with a tomato can and a dandelion plant. Ethereal and heartwarming. A classic I loved revisiting!

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was happy to discover this via the #ChildrensClassicRead2020 group read on Litsy. A lovely vintage story about the magic of imagination, reminiscent of other favorites like Racketty-Packetty House.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about nostalgia. This was precious and brought back so many memories of similar afternoons I spent as a child. I mean how can you go wrong with an elf that was found leaving the public library with a book in his hand, a book about magic...

[Lobstergirl]

I was lured by the cover, and the possibility that this child was named by the Palin parents, but didn't have the attention span to finish it. There was too much dialogue, an Elf, and ultimately just too many pages (152).

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I will quibble with some stylistic issues in this book, it is absolutely wholesome and terribly sweet. This may be a better independent read than read aloud. The stylistic issues may not have bothered me so much if it were not being read aloud.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twig lives in a little apartment in urban Chicago during the 1920s. But the little fenced- and walled-in slab of dirt in the behind the building is a wonderland for Twig. Gum wrappers, tomato cans, and the nest of sparrows are just a few of the mundane objects that become extraordinary when a little elf (escaped from a library book) visits Twig's backyard.

We have read this book aloud to our kids three times already (and encores are rare around here), and they still ask to hear it again. Full of Twig's happy optimism (in the midst of poverty about which Twig is blissfully unaware), this book captures my kids' attention and sparks their imaginations.

[Michelle Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this darling hardcover at a thrift store but was disappointed. It has all the parts for a good fairy story: tiny people, fairies, a flying carpet, and even a caterpillar that doubles as the Queen Fairy’s fur. But it’s missing what the old good fairy stories have, and I can’t name what that is. It’s too dramatic and modern or… something.

Oh, and I don’t think “!?*#%!!” belongs in a children’s book.

But there are delightful parts too, if you love a tomato can for a house and toothpaste tops for little dishes and the imagination of a child.

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable story for the right age. Maybe 4-9. Enjoyed the Kindle version with my granddaughters on Zoom. All the illustrations are there and it is easy to screen share Kindle pages on Zoom.

[Julie Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the books that have been read to me at an early age and those in which I picked up as an adult and read to my students, Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones is my all time favorite! As a little girl I did not learn to read until I was in third grade. Elizabeth Orton Jones brought her little character Twig alive to me. I immediately identified with her and acted out the story at home.

I could not wait to hear what would happen in the next chapter. Each of the story's characters became alive to me. I wanted to read the book myself after Miss Love our wonderful librarian finished reading it aloud. I checked it out and realized that I too could read the words with help. Thousands of books later, Twig, is my favorite.

I returned to teaching after taking many years off. My sister and Mother presented the book Twig to me as a gift on my first day back in the classroom. It was difficult for them to locate Twig at that time and it cost them a considerable amount of money to buy a library bound copy. High on a special place in my library my copy of Twig resides today. The book has been reprinted, the illustrations and the words are the same. Every child should be introduced to the wonderful world that Twig lived in. Thank you Elizabeth Orton Jones!

[Kathryn, the_naptime_reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first encounter with this book was as a child. My mother read it aloud to us on a long car ride to help pass the time. I remember laughing at the older gentlemen saying “young whippersnapper”, but not much else, except that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My mom read the first chapter aloud to my 4 year old one day when she napped at her house, and she brought it home to continue reading it.

This book has an ethereal, dreamy, nostalgic quality to it. A simpler time where play was dominated by found objects and your imagination. I can see why kid me loved it, fairies, magic, talking to animals. It captured my daughter’s attention. A simple story over the course of a day in a poor, lonely, urban girl’s life as she invents and imagines a magical day.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it felt a bit too long, but it worked out in the end.

[Loralee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down, this is the cutest book I have ever read. Might have cried reading the last two chapters out loud to the kids. (And it's not even sad...I just loved it that much.)

[Jeannette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a read aloud to a group of Kindergarteners and from the beginning, they were hooked, both boys and girls. The author’s description of spunky Twig, her friends and neighbors, and her boundless imagination were a perfect blend of loveliness and whimsy. Each adventure was attended to and remembered. The illustrations added so much to the story and were utterly charming.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a lovely story about the power of imagination.

[Heidi Edmonds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was alright, illustrations were cute. The kids liked it quite a bit.

[Leilani Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An imaginative, magical read, a bit on the slow side (which suits the story). I read this aloud with my 7 year old daughter. She was entranced!

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this oldie but goodie. I remember reading this as a child and enjoying it just as much then. Thanks for the memories.

[Anne Thomsen Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twig was so fun. It will be a great book to read to Thomsen when he is a little older. The books takes you into the imagination of a little girl living in a fourth floor apartment that disappears for hours making her own fun in the grassless backyard of the apartment complex. I can't quite figure out when the story takes place because Twig's father is a taxi driver, but an ice wagon horse is a primary figure in Twig's world. No matter when it was, I loved it. I love how children used to have to make their own fun with talking birds, elves, and fairies--a little different than sitting in front of a screen for hours on end.

[Toryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This thoughtfully written book is about a little girl nicknamed Twig, who finds a broken tomato can. Using her imagination, she finds that when you turn it upside down, it makes a nice little fairy house! Twig hopes a fairy will come to make a home in it soon. But when a little elf, who is interested in magic comes, Twig herself gets turned miniature!

Of all of the crazy things that little Twig has had happened to her, this is sure to be the craziest!!!

[Focus on Family Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that this book is written in the innocent way that stories used to be written. Lends very well to reading aloud with little ones-not too many characters to get confused and each character is given it's fair time. Some very goofy parts that made my kids belly laugh. Love the message and how the story comes to an end...or doesn't...

[Anita Comfort · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a child and had a longing to read it again. Too grown up, and too aware of the author’s artistry, I wasn’t quite able to be Twig as I re-read it, but I distinctly remember that I once was. A beautifully written book that deserves to be labeled a classic in children’s literature.

[Ramatteson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a beautiful book. I think a bit auto-biographical. Without ruining the end it's the story of a poor urban girl's imaginings one Saturday. Illustrations by the author always a plus. A fun read-aloud with child-like banter between the 2 main characters. A fun intro to fairies.

[Lisa Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my daughter's favorite books. For along time she would want her hair done "like Twig's." In fact we still call her Twig since she wanted a fairy to come live us. And One Did! A very sweet book.

[Loganosity · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It was out of print for many years. I had an old copy and finally (after many emails to family and searching) found this 60th Anniversary Edition. I was so glad to have another copy to share with younger relatives.

[Carrie DeSpain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to get away from the realities of life for a little bit and delve back into the imagination of your childhood? Want your new reader to have something unusual but interesting to read? This book was adorable to say the least and for me made for an easy 3 night read before bed.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great timeless children's fairy story - perfect longer chapter book (as a read aloud for the child who has matured beyond picture books but not yet reading independently.)

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember LOVING this as a little girl. Planning on reading it to my kids again! A fairy living in a tomato can...can you beat that?

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly charming.