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Hi there, this blog post is my trying to get back to the joy the works of Alison Uttley has brought me since childhood, and make sense of this past year and a half. You, see I had quite forgotten about my blog, until I saw the WordPress auto-renewal email. Little Grey Rabbit Drop Out?

To borrow a word from Watership Down, I’ve been “tharn” since 2019. The sudden death of my mother, COVID-19 lockdown, death of our pet during the pandemic, the anxiety of the election, and just existing as a Black woman in the United States of America in general, have all taken a heavy toll on my wellbeing. Posting scans of Little Grey Rabbit illustrations to Instagram gave me a bit of routine and distraction during the first leg of the COVID shutdown–while I was worried about my job. I treated myself to little Grey Rabbit books illustrated by Jennie Corbett, but the constant shock of things like the murder of George Floyd, April 2020– the armed protestors at the capitol without repercussion–which was like a sneak peek of January 6th, left me even more tharn. The new books languished on my shelf, and I stopped scanning pictures for Instagram, my last effort was sharing the little Grey Rabbit Christmas play.

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It’s not like I’ve lost interested in Little Grey Rabbit or Little Red Fox, since then, I’ve passively enjoyed Alison Uttley audiobooks, reading passages from the Private Diaries of Alison Uttley, and even realized her books are available in Russian. Ура! “Сказки Малиькой крольчих” by Элисон Аттли – Hoorah! “Fairy Tales of the Little Rabbi”t by Alison Uttley. I guess I’ve just lost touch with that drive to enjoy and share what I love about Alison Uttley’s work. I’d like to regain it.

So, here I am Spring 2021–though the world is still very much a raging dumpster fire–, vaccinated, auto-billed and ready to try again.

until next time,

Primrose

#tharn – lapine (rabbit language) for frozen with fear, like a deer in headlights.

 

   If you were to edit an audiobook anthology of favorite Christmas scenes from literature, what would you include? Recently listening to A Literary Christmas, I realized I only enjoyed less than 30% of the stories included.  I also realize that I already have favorite Christmas scenes that I like to listen to in December—, just not written down in any order. So, I present to you: Little Grey Rabbit Scholar’s Literary Christmas. A lot of these are juvenile fiction or classics, and well known to me. I’d love to hear about your favorite Christmas or wintertime scenes from literature classics or otherwise.

 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Read by Barbara Caruso “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents…” or a Christmas breakfast—until the March girls learn differently. I remember reading this particular excerpt in the Children’s Bookshelf anthology long before reading the novel as a tween.

American Girl story collection. This is easy since the historical characters typically each had a winter holiday story. My favorites are Addy’s Surprise by Connie Porter. Read by Cynthia Adams & Felicity’s Surprise by Valerie Tripp Read by Carrie Hitchcock. Each girl receives a Christmas time miracle for her family. In Addy’s story they cook her father and brother’s favorite dish: sweet potato pudding, as a way to cope with their family being seperated. This part particularly resonated with me more as an adult, because as I get older it’s become more meaningful to cook the favorite meals or recipes of dearly departed family members.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, read by Michael York.Oh boy, when Christmas returns to Narnia! This chapter includes a scrumptious breakfasts from Father Christmas and vital gifts for our main characters for the battle to come.

Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor; read by Lynne Thigpen
The Logan family’s warm domestic holiday scene is a wonderful pause from the harshness of their world (Jim Crow, the Great Depression) but not sugarcoated. Cassie’s joy of her new books is heartwarming especially in contrast of the school issued textbooks at the beginning.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens read by Aton Lesser. Stave III and the Ghost of Christmas Present shows the warmth of the Cratchit family celebrating with their Christmas pudding.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol Performed by Alan Young & Cast. Storyteller version. Mickey’s Christmas Carol is the only cartoon adaptation of a Christmas Carol I’ve ever liked; I read the Little Golden book version to pieces as a child. This storyteller edition features a few fun songs that didn’t make it to the animated feature film.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Read by Anton Lesser The Christmas dinner. It’s one of my favorites, how is tar water and missing pork pie not memorable?

The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman and read by Claire Bloom. This is actually a play-along/soundtrack that came with a picture book. I love the opening paragraph. “Snow was falling gently on the streets people were hurrying home…For it was Christmas Eve, and as twilight fell, the children throughout Germany waited in hushed expectation for night to arrive, and with it their gifts from the Christ Child.”

Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas & Squirrel Goes Skating by Alison Uttley. Read by Elaine Claxton. It will have you singing Holly Red and Mistletoe White along with your traditional songs and carols!

The Gift of the Magi & The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry. Read by Katherine Kellgren, Oliver Wyman, and Jonathan Davis. This was an audible freebie and it’s great. The Cop and the Anthem is a true O. Henry sucker punch and it will have you laughing out loud.

Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary. I own the Ramona collection read by Stockard Channing. The last chapter is Ramona and the Nativity play where Ramona is now the malcontent in need of some cheer. I also include Ramona and Her Mother; because it takes place the Sunday after Christmas. The Quimbys host a brunch and Ramona gives Willa Jean the gift of wasting a whole box of tissues.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. Read by Meryl Streep and music by George Winston. This is a very beautiful production and the music is gentle enough to fall asleep to. Honestly, I can listen to this year round it’s so soothing and a beautiful story.

Note: All of these are from my Audible library except Mickey’s Christmas Carol, which is an iTunes purchase, and the Nutcracker is a digital copy from the book’s CD.

June 6, 2019 was the 75^thanniversary of D-Day and so I chose to spotlight Hare Joins the Home Guard. It was published in 1941, and the copy I am using is an abridged Diamond Book reprint from 1994.

 

 

War comes to Little Grey Rabbit’s peaceful land, and everyone must do his or her part to support the war effort. Grey Rabbit is a one woman Red Cross unit, Squirrel knits socks and mittens for the troops and Hare joins the Home Guard.

The enemy invader is an army of Weasels from an unspecified “wild land”.  The working title was Grey Rabbit’s War, and was written during World War II, and brings contemporary troubles into the world of LGR.  In Alison Uttley: Life of a Country Child, Dennis Judd posits, “…the book must have reassured thousands of young readers aware that Britain faced imminent invasion and defeat.” This really placed the book in context for me. In school, I remember constantly being told how fortunate the United States was not to have major battles take place stateside during WWII. Judd supports his statement by citing a letter Alison Uttley received from a young boy who believed “…Goebbels won’t let the Nazis come now because Hare will stop them.” It’s rather reassuring of the power of books as tools of comfort and distraction, but also ironic seeing as Hare is hardly the hero this kid writing to Alison Uttley thought he was, as we shall see. Continue reading “Hare Joins the Home Guard”

Little Grey Rabbit’s Spring Cleaning Party

The foreword and Margaret Tempest’s endpaper design is included in both editions.

1971 pictures by Katherine Wigglesworth. (left)

1994 Reprint illustrated by Mary Cooper in the style of Margaret Tempest. (right)

Continue reading “Little Grey Rabbit’s Spring Cleaning Party”

Connaisez vous Julie Lapin et ses amis Lièvre et Dame Écureiul? Bien sûr, they’re only our old friends Grey Rabbit, Hare and Squirrel. Searching for “petit lapin gris” out of curiosity, I was pleased to find LGR was translated into French. I tried doing the same for Spanish, but no luck. Little Grey Rabbit was also translated into German, and Japanese. In my experience, picture books are worthy and fun aids for studying foreign languages.

Continue reading “Little Grey Rabbit translated”

Happy May Day eve! I’m quite amazed  and sorry that I haven’t published anything since 2016. I’ve frittered too much time aiming for perfect and letting drafts go unfinished and unpublished. I’m going to give the notion “done is better than perfect.” a try,  and since it’s  Spring–the time of rebirth and renewal I feel it’s a good opportunity to rejuvenate my blog and even create an instagram account. Feel free to check it out, the link is in the sidebar.

Sincerely,

Primrose