Earl the Squirrel - Hardcover

Freeman, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670060194 ISBN 13: 9780670060191

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2005

Synopsis

For more information about the book and Don Freeman, please visit www.donfreeman.info.

Earl the Squirrel doesn’t think of himself as spoiled, but his mother does. She decides it’s high time Earl learns to find acorns for himself. There’s only one problem—he doesn’t know where to look. Earl’s friend Jill offers to help, but that’s not what Earl’s mother had in mind. So, wearing his bright red scarf, Earl sets off on his own for an action-packed acornfinding mission.

Striking black-and-white scratchboard art is accented by Earl’s crimson scarf. The effect is classic, clean, and thoroughly recognizable as Don Freeman’s signature style.

About this title

About the Author

Don Freeman was born in San Diego, California, in 1908. At an early age, he received a trumpet as a gift from his father. He practiced obsessively and eventually joined a California dance band. After graduating from high school, he ventured to New York City to study art under the tutelage of Joan Sloan and Harry Wickey at the Art Students' League. He managed to support himself throughout his schooling by playing his trumpet evenings, in nightclubs and at weddings.

Gradually, he eased into making a living sketching impressions of Broadway shows for The New York Times and The Herald Tribune. This shift was helped along, in no small part, by a rather heartbreaking incident: he lost his trumpet. One evening, he was so engrossed in sketching people on the subway, he simply forgot it was sitting on the seat beside him. This new career turned out to be a near-perfect fit for Don, though, as he had always loved the theater.

He was introduced to the world of children’s literature when William Saroyan asked him to illustrate several books. Soon after, he began to write and illustrate his own books, a career he settled into comfortably and happily. Through his writing, he was able to create his own theater: "I love the flow of turning the pages, the suspense of what's next. Ideas just come at me and after me. It's all so natural. I work all the time, long into the night, and it's such a pleasure. I don't know when the time ends. I've never been happier in my life!"

Don died in 1978, after a long and successful career. He created many beloved characters in his lifetime, perhaps the most beloved among them a stuffed, overall-wearing bear named Corduroy.

Don Freeman was the author and illustrator of many popular books for children, including Corduroy, A Pocket for Corduroy, and the Caldecott Honor Book Fly High, Fly Low.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 2–A posthumous publication of a manuscript by the creator of Corduroy (Viking, 1968). Earl's mother thinks that his friend Jill (a little girl) is spoiling her son when she gives him an acorn, a nutcracker, and her doll's red scarf, so Earl sets out to prove that he can find acorns on his own. The red scarf becomes a sack, a hat, and a bullfighter's cape, and the young squirrel comes back with a harvest of acorns and returns the scarf. The scarlet scarf leaps out of Freeman's otherwise black-and-white scratchboard illustrations. The pictures are full of energy and detail, and Earl is both cheeky and endearing. Kids will laugh when Conrad the bull gets stuck in the tree as Earl indignantly and fearlessly snatches the precious scarf from his horns, only to be plonked on the head by an acorn. The story is gentle, innocent, and funny, and although it was written many years ago, Freeman's ability to capture the artless adventures of childhood is of the moment.–Jane Barrer, formerly at Washington Square Village Creative Steps, New York City
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PreS-K. Earl is a young squirrel who has become dependent on the kindness of a girl who lives nearby. Instructed by his mother to hunt for acorns, he goes to visit his human friend and returns with an acorn--and a nutcracker. Chided at home, Earl soon ventures out on his own, wearing a red scarf his friend has knitted. His quest for nuts turns into a contest with a bull, but he succeeds in spectacular fashion. It's only natural that this picture book has a certain vintage tone and look. Its author-illustrator is the same Don Freeman (1908-1978) whose best picture books, such as Beady Bear and Corduroy, appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. The scratchboard artwork, particularly effective in the night scenes, pictures Earl's adventures in black and white with one colorful element: the scarlet scarf. Published for the first time,^B this picture book will please those who enjoy the innocent air and now-retro look of Freeman's work. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670060194
• ISBN 13: 9780670060191
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48