He includes both beautiful full color drawings and some that are just done in shades of one or two colors. (And they didn’t even have to fight! As with many bullies, just being challenged is enough to send them scurrying cowardly away.)Īuthor Miriam Young wrote a very sweet and gentle story with Miss Suzy, but it’s Arnold Lobel’s wonderful artwork that really gives it that warm and wonderful feeling. She cooks for them and reads them stories at night, so when she tells them about her former home and the red squirrels who chased her out, the toy soldiers go out to defend her and win back her home. When she moves into the dollhouse, she also discovers a box of toy soldiers that have been neglected, so she dusts them off and invites them to share her great big house with her. I loved the ingenuity in her furnishings, the twig broom, the firefly lamp and the acorn cups.

When we first meet Miss Suzy, she is the model of domesticity in her little tree house. I loved it a truckload back then and actually have to admit to getting a little teary when I read through it again for the first time in probably 40 years. I had never seen Miss Suzy before, so I was convinced that I was one of the first people to ever get to read it. I can clearly remember getting the box in the mail, being so excited to open it up and see what my new book was.

This was the first book I ever received from the Parents Magazine Book Club when I was a little girl. I have a very warm fuzzy memory connected with Miss Suzy. This is my 50th book post, so I chose a special book to write up today. Miss Suzy would appreciate a Swiffer Duster right about now.

Miss Suzy by Miriam Young