Sterling North (1906–1974)

I enjoyed reading this to my son. Sterling writes of a year in his life, after his mother's death, and the lenient household his father allowed: He is handbuilding a canvas & wood canoe in the living room. On a trip to the Brule River region, his father leaves him alone at camp for several days, and apparently frequently Sterling is left to his own devices at home, which he handles responsibly. He finds an isolated baby raccoon and raises it, lavishing it with love. His episode of taking it to show-and-tell at school is very reminiscent of the tale he told in The Wolfling in which the school bully gets nipped after surreptitiously hurting the animal. While the main text concerns the raccoon, he also writes of being cared for by farm relatives during the Influenza Epidemic and a later visit to help them with tobacco stripping. Sterling has to earn his spending money by selling newspapers and trapping muskrats--until his love for Rascal makes him realize he can no longer harm wild creatures. As Rascal matures, his habit of raiding neighboring garden patches makes him persona non grata and Sterling has to take measures to keep him safe from retaliatory shooting.
Excellent role model values shown throughout the book, altho most youth in current times don't experience the same country environment.… (more)