"Just Mary" Reader: Mary Grannan—Selected Stories

David E. Kemp is professor emeritus of drama at Queen’s University.

Mary Evelyn Grannan is an almost-forgotten figure who had a significant
influence on Canadian children’s culture in the post-Depression and
postwar periods.

Grannan’s Maggie Muggins and “Just Mary” stories shaped the CBC
legacy of gentle children’s programming. Her stories were part of the
golden age of CBC programs for children, and she published them in more
than 30 bestselling books.

This book presents for the first time a selection of her stories from
two radio drama series. “Jubilee Road” recounts the adventures and
misadventures of Johnny and Patty Little and their friend Salty Pickle.
In “The Land of Supposing,” Grannan reworks fairy tales and legends
from around the world, and creates a few legends of her own. Previously
unpublished selections from “Just Mary” and “Maggie Muggins”
stories complete the collection.

Margaret Hume, a former librarian at Concordia University, is to be
congratulated for rescuing Mary Grannan’s stories from obscurity. This
collection of original scripts will delight the children who read them,
the parents who heard them as children and are now telling them to their
children, storytelling librarians, and those studying early childhood
education. The book is beautifully illustrated. Highly recommended.