Getting lost on his way to his cousin Bottom's 100th birthday celebration, Tottem finds himself in a Magic Cornfield that transports him to many unusual places, from which he sends Bottom postcard descriptions of his experiences.
NANCY WILLARD was an award-winning children's author, poet, and essayist who received the Newbery Medal in 1982 for A Visit to William Blake's Inn. She wrote dozens of volumes of children's fiction and poetry, including The Flying Bed, Sweep Dreams, and Cinderella's Dress. She also authored two novels for adults, Things Invisible to See and Sister Water, and twelve books of poetry, including Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems. She lived with her husband, photographer Eric Lindbloom, and taught at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Nancy Willard combines the cornfield as transport with the threat of being lost in fairyland and takes the result to an outrageous extreme. Tottem ends up both lost and trapped inside the cornfield. His only way to communicate with the outside world is through a magical mailbox that can send postcards to Bottom.