Willow and Twig

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Jean Little is one of Canada’s best writers for children. Willow and
Twig will only confirm her already high reputation. This moving story of
two half-siblings, abandoned in the slums of Vancouver and transported
to the home of a grandmother whom they hardly know in rural Ontario,
will surely become a classic like The Secret Garden for generations of
the young at heart to treasure.

Little, who herself lives with relatives and an assortment of animals
on an old farmstead near Elora, Ontario, has known her own share of
difficulties. Here, she transposes them into the insight and
understanding that lie behind this fiction. Ten-year-old Willow is
mature for her years, having felt responsible for her difficult
four-year-old brother, Twig, ever since he was born. Her youth and
vulnerability—along with Little’s delicious sense of humor—shine
through in her relationship with Red Mouse, her imaginary friend and
adviser. Stonecrop, the 100-year-old farmstead where they now live, with
its menage of assorted animals and rambling grounds, is an entrancing
world for the two children.

Trouble in paradise appears in the form of Gram’s bad-tempered
sister, Constance, whom Gram compares to a bulldozer. Constance wants
the children sent back to their mother. Bedlam ensues, but Willow is
undaunted. She knows that Gram loves her and Twig and will never let
them go.

The comically awful Con, Gram’s memories and love of books,
Willow’s resilience even during the most stressful times, and the
discovery of “the real” Red Mouse complete an ideal set of
ingredients for a great story. Willow and Twig turns the concept of
strays into an enchanting archetype of the human condition and paradise
regained. Highly recommended.