An Adorable Read

Hickory is a mouse living in an old grandfather clock with his parents and two siblings, named no other than Dickory and Dock. Though a loving member of his family, Hickory finds himself wanting to venture to the outside world of the meadow and beyond. There he discovers more about life and true friendship.

The characters, setting, illustrations, language and imagery drew me into the delightful, simple beauty and wonders of nature as seen through the eyes of a sweet adventurous mouse.

I so much enjoyed the imagery and language of this book that I had to record them for doting over whenever the mood strikes...

• "Eat all you want," the father said, "but never leave paw-prints in the butter." They never did.
• Hop(e) the Grasshopper's song..."My life is but a summer song, A carol in the sun, Now, when the nights grown cold and long, The song I sing will soon be done."
• Together they went exploring, and they discovered the sweetness of blackberries and the sharpness of sassafras twigs. They learned useful things--that chicory is bitter, but sorrel only sour. And they learned useless things too--that the track of a snail is silver winding through the grass, but the light of a firefly is green gold melting in the air.
• woolly mullein leaves
• thousands of wild asters, pink and purple and white, field after field, hill after hill
• wedge of geese
• milkweed silk soared shimmering in the soft air
• an old orchard where wasps were eating holes in the brown, rotting fallen pears
• prowl the pantry
• blue calico
• The geraniums were too spicy and gave them indigestion.
• The air was more salubrious, the nights more restful.
• The finest red raspberry jam was tasteless compared to the

sunlit
blackberry
bursting
on
the
bramble.

• Each blade of grass you pull has a sweet white nibble at the base, each honeysuckle flower a drop of nectar.
• ...after they had gone in the spring when the lilacs bloomed
• I remember a field once, all full of blue violets, and a yellow bird singing.
• watching between the organdie curtain and the pane
• anise seeds in a knapsack made of brown linen, in case he got a sore throat, and a clove in case he had a toothache.
• Life is not going to be all cake-crumbs and cheese-parings.
• If you get lonesome, remember we love you and want you back.
• the heavy honeysuckle smell spilling down the hillside
• crept through the warm stones of the meadow wall
• gray rock, rusted with lichens
• dug out a bedroom and lined it with thistle-down
• the air was drowsy with meadowsweet
• across the meadow into a thicket of thistles by the farthest wall
• the next day, before the wild morning-glories had crumpled or the dew had dried
• I came from the ground, and someday I will go back to it, but not before I have to.
• When the goldenrod was fading and the air smelled of apples, Hickory was gathering rose hips.
• The nights turned cool, and crickets' chirps grew thin and shrill. Weeds were wet with dew until noon, and poison-ivy leaves turned an ugly red.
• A yellow bird perched in a sweetbrier to watch.
• An orange butterfly resting on a gentian.