Monday, July 20, 2009

Book Report-"Rascal"

"Rascal" by Sterling North

I have read 'Rascal' a number of times in my life.
Never have I enjoyed it as much as I have this time.
'Rascal' was a national best seller for 29 weeks.
I can see why.

Sterling takes us back to his childhood-
back to the time when doors were unlocked
at night and keys were left in the ignition of cars.

'Rascal' is his pet raccoon.
You can imagine the trouble the two of them got into.

Sometimes, I read portions of the book aloud to Phil
when we crawl into bed at night.
There are few books written as well as this one.
Susan just read it too.


The following is an excerpt from the book.
I found it especially interesting since we are having trouble with coons eating our sweet corn.

"One serious mistake I made, however, was to give Rascal his first taste of sweet corn. I twisted a plump ear from a stalk in one of my rows, stripped back the husk, and handed the corn to my pet, who had carefully watched the whole performance. Rascal went slightly berserk. No other food he had ever tasted compared to this juicy new delicacy which he was sampling for the first time. He ate most of the first ear, then in a frenzy scrambled up another corn stalk, pulling it slowly to the ground. He wrestled and struggled with a fresh ear, tearing away part of the husk and guzzling greedily as before. Still unsatisfied, he left the second ear half eaten to climb a third corn stalk. He was drunk and disorderly on the nectar and ambrosia called sweet corn."
"I thought Rascal's binge was amusing. But when I told the story to my father, he looked at us both quite seriously and said, "I'm, afraid you're in for trouble, Sterling."


You'll have to read the book for the rest of the story.
You'll be glad you did.
Better yet, read it outloud to someone you love.

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