SQUIRREL BOOK

by Eugene Kinkead ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1980

Some years ago Eugene Kinkead wrote an article about squirrels for The New Yorker and became, it appears, a national depository for squirreliana. National? Nay, international: some of Kinkead's best stories--which begin with a squirrel-count in Central Park (they cluster, sensibly, near the entrances--handy for hand-outs)--come from Britain, where the bumptious American gray squirrel is deemed a menace to the smaller, more reticent native red breed. A canard, says Kinkead, who also explains their ""omnivorous appetite overseas"" by pointing to the paucity of nut trees. In America, where once ""a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River without touching the ground,"" they have had their ups and downs. Formerly fair game for irate farmers, they have benefited from the conservationist ethic; but their detractors persist--as vociferous, if not numerous, as their champions. Kinkead ticks off, appreciatively, their affronts to humankind: the. robbing of bird feeders (unpreventable--""Tomorrow may arrive. . . the furry Einstein of the out-of-doors""); the invasion of houses (the afflicted family can expect no sympathy); the interruption of electric power and telephone service (they bite the wires, Kinkead maintains, to check the rampant growth of their incisors). But countable among squirrel people are Benjamin Franklin, who introduced them into Britain as pets for young friends (and coined ""snug as a bug in a rug"" as an epitaph for one); the American Museum of Natural History's Richard Van Gelder, who discovered that they crossed Central Park. West when the traffic was light; and nine-year-old Torontonean Jennifer Schengili, who proved that they do indeed bury cracked, even shelled nuts. With occasional deft drawings by John Hamburger, a find for fanciers and a rep roach to grouches.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION