The Gift of the Deer (Paperback or Softback)

The classic story of a family of deer and the humans who loved them

One Christmas Eve an emaciated deer stumbled across the yard of Helen Hoover’s remote cabin in northern Minnesota. Barely surviving the brutal winter, gaunt from starvation, blind in one eye from a hunting wound, he became the central character in Hoover’s best-selling book, The Gift of the Deer.

Hoover and her husband Adrian named this deer Peter and nursed him back to health, setting out cedar branches, corn, and carrots. From that Christmas on, the Hoovers observed Peter and his growing clan for four years. Hoover relates the story of these deer, including the birth of new fawns, the danger of predators, even the amusing way a mother deer teaches “manners” to her young.

The Gift of the Deer, first published in 1966, sold over 50,000 copies and is Hoover’s best-selling book. It is now available in an inexpensive paperback edition that is beautifully illustrated by Adrian Hoover. Readers young and old will delight in this touching story of two north woods families.

Helen Hoover (1910-1984) is the author of several books, including The Years of the Forest (1973) and A Place in the Woods (1969). Before moving to the remote wilderness of northern Minnesota in 1954, she was an accomplished chemist. Many of her books are illustrated by her husband Adrian, and she enjoyed popularity with readers across the country.