Hello and welcome to a feeze-your-fingers-off, subzero Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is February 6th.
During Christmas, last year - in an effort to divert his younger siblings' bickering (I don't recall the conflict but am sure it fell into one of the usual categories: sharing and personal space) - the WAKWIR* produced
an ancient-looking book from his bookshelves and said, “Here. Read this.”
What he presented was a weighty hardcover; something you’d see on a grandparent’s bookshelf – stories of yesteryear musty with age and dusty with neglect. Stamped on the burgundy red spine and front cover was Uncle Wiggily’s Story Book.
Unimpressed, the children entreated me to resume reading our way through the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series. We were well into Book 3 and Ezylryb, the curmudgeonly Whisker Screech owl – and most-beloved teacher of the owlets – was missing. Possibly kidnapped!
While the littles scowled and sulked, I turned to the first
story, “Uncle Wiggily’s Toothache” about the little boy who refused to go the
dentist for his insufferable toothache because he was scared. This caught the
Kindergartner’s attention, because, while he didn’t have a toothache, he did
have a very wiggly loose tooth, and was curious to know more about children
going to the dentist. Uncle Wiggily, being the kind bunny rabbit gentleman that
he was, wanted to help the little boy in the story, who he could understand because, as the narrator explains, “[he] could hear and understand boy and girl talk, though he
could not speak it himself.” (p. 6)
Uncle Wiggily conspires with Dr. Possum to put on a little
animal theater outside of the boy’s window. “If that boy
sees me, a rabbit gentleman, having a tooth pulled, which is what he will think
he sees, it may make him brave enough to go to the dentists. I’ll try it.” (p. 7)
Long story short, Uncle Wiggily’s plan proved successful, as the boy proclaimed himself to the dentist, “I-I didn’t know how easy it was ‘till I saw the rabbit have his tooth pulled.” (p. 9)
We discovered some never-before-heard-of bad guys like the Skeezicks and the Pipsisewah. We learned lessons like kindness and the importance of helping others and useful tips like to dig a trench around your tent when camping so rain won't flood it. I flipped to the inside cover and taught the Third Grader how to decipher Roman numerals as we broke the code of the copyright date: MCMXXI. (1921) “One hundred years old!” I exclaimed. “Imagine! Children just like you were enjoying these stories one hundred years ago.” (Note: A google search tells me that the first publication date of this book was 1913.)
And so, with great confidence, we can already declare Uncle Wiggily as the family favorite for 2021.
Alas, as is true with all books, Chapter XXXVI "Uncle Wiggily and the Wolf" brought us to the inevitable end of the road to a set of great tales. But the author, anticipating a sense of gloom and a little grief on the part of his young readers, closed with this:
"But now we have come to the end of this book. Not that Uncle Wiggily's adventures were over, for he had many more. But these are all I have room for here. Enough to say that the bunny rabbit lived happily for many, many years in his hollow stump bungalow in the woods, with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. And there you may, perhaps, see him some day. Who knows? ADIEU." (p. 247)
Not "the end" but "adieu."
Rather than feel sad, I rode the inspirational wave of
Uncle Wiggily’s farewell and went in search of more similarly red-covered relics and happened, instead, upon a slim pale green volume with “Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie” stamped in
blue across the fabric cover.
To my surprise, the littles had not yet heard the adventures of
Peter and the Lost Boys. So, we cracked open yet another century-old treasure (1911!), and thus
begins a new tale from another time.
Adieu!
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| Uncle Wiggily and Dr. Possum |
On This Day
Remembering You
Kim
* Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence
ReplyDeleteThis book is still in print. $17.00 for a new copy, or half that price used. We’re always looking for good books to read to the grandkids.
Glad to hear it! Yes, I think it's a worthy purchase. Those saucer eyes when you tell the kids the stories are over one hundred years old - priceless. ;)
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