Rascal

From May 1–7 we celebrate National Pet Week, with a theme this year of “Save a Life, Adopt a Pet.” Desiring a pet is almost a universal experience of childhood. Usually, the term pet bring to mind dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, or other domesticated animals. But, of course, a pet can be any animal that forms a bond with a human—and that is the case of the book of the day, Rascal by Sterling North.

In this autobiographical story that takes place during World War I in rural Wisconsin, young Sterling North collects a menagerie of pets—a Saint Bernard named Wowser, cats, four skunks, and Poe, a crow. Very lonely, because his mother has died and his father is often absent, Sterling relies on these animals for company. Then one day he finds a baby raccoon.

During the course of a year, the raccoon, Rascal, shares Sterling’s life. Sterling takes Rascal everywhere by placing him on the front of his bicycle. They go on fishing expeditions and share meals together. As is true to his species, Rascal washes all his food; in a hilarious episode, he discovers sugar cubes, only to watch them dissolve when he cleans them. But, of course, the raccoon is a wild creature destined for another life. In one of the great three-handkerchief endings in children’s books, Sterling realizes that Rascal needs to go back to live in the forest. Taking his friend out in a canoe, Sterling says: “Do as you please, my little raccoon. It’s your life….
He hesitated for a full minute, turned once to look back at me, then took the plunge and swam to the near shore. He had chosen to join that entrancing female somewhere in the shadows. I caught only one glimpse of them in a moonlit glade before they disappeared to begin their new life together.”
Sterling never saw Rascal again.

Sterling North had a very distinguished career as a critic and publisher, editor of the North Star books series for Houghton Mifflin. But he is best remembered for his Newbery Honor book Rascal—the biography of an unusual but beloved pet.

So go play with your dog, pat your cat, feed your goldfish, and think about the role pets play in your life. My own would have been so much poorer without the beautiful brown eyes—and personalities—of Lady and Lancelot. So I am off for a walk!

Here’s a section from Rascal: