Book Review: Twig

Book Review: Twig

        
Author: Elizabeth Orton Jones

        
Date: 1942

        
Publisher: Macmillan

        
ISBN: none

        
Length: 152 pages

        
Illustrations: many drawings, some partly colored

        
Quote: “Twig stood on the back porch which belonged to the fourth floor of a high sort of house in the city.”

        
Twig is a rather lonely, imaginative little girl, probably in primary school, like the children who are most likely to read her story. The characters in the adventure she invents for herself include an ice-wagon horse, a cat, a couple of sparrows, an elf dressed in potato skins, a fairy with a fur stole that is indeed a caterpillar, and a magician who takes the elf home with him when Twig gets tired of imagining herself shrunk to elf size.

         
Twig is a pretty, pleasant little book that nice little girls can read, as it might be at or after a Brownie meeting. It has not become a great favorite, but it will amuse anyone in need of diversion during a time of boredom. The drawings and story line may help crafty little girls build really cheap and interesting dolls’ houses.

As with Mrs. Jones’s more realistic stories, this book may be too juvenile for one child but just right for another child in the same class. Boys seldom admit much interest in stories about a girl and her imaginary friends, but a particularly talented boy might enjoy making a miniature house out of junk as much as a girl would.  

This book has become a bit of a collector's item, but I'll try to keep the price here down to $5 for the book + $5 for shipping. I doubt that Mrs. Jones needs the dollar. I also doubt that you'll find a much better deal elsewhere.