Miss Hickory in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 08, 2021 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: newbery, female-author

This was a surprisingly fun book. It is the 1947 Newbery winner, and I was dreading reading it because so many early Newbery winners are duds. This book is the story of Miss Hickory, a doll made of an apple twig with a hickory nut for a head. She has all sorts of adventures with various animals in her neighborhood after her owner leaves for winter. I liked the way the author personified the wildlife, it often had me chuckling because of her funny explanations of animal behaviors. I liked the way ...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it it was ok

Shelves: newbery, children-s-books

Oh, golly, not another book about a doll! This is not the world-traveling china doll of other Newbery books. No, this is the creative Miss Hickory, with a body made of a twig and a head made of a hickory nut. Miss Hickory is able to conquer potential predators like Squirrel using her clever little hickory mind. She visits the barn at Christmastime and sees a glorious sight. She helps the Hen-Pheasants figure out a way to make it through the winter without their husbands. And when she loses her h ...more

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Feb 18, 2014 Samantha rated it it was amazing

I read this in the equivalent of grade 4 and just loved it. I recently bought another copy for my niece and was thrilled to find it still in print.

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Jan 17, 2022 Linda Martin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: newbery-medal-winners, middle-grade, 2022, fiction, geo-new-hampshire

This book is more proof that the quality of children's literature has changed and improved a lot since the 1940's. Or maybe 1946 was an especially slow year. The Newbery Committee, often not a great source for picking out the best in children's literature, decided this was the "most distinguished" contribution to children's literature in the USA that year and gave it the 1947 Newbery Medal. What an honor for a talking, animated twig of an apple tree with a hickory nut head.

She was hard headed an This book is more proof that the quality of children's literature has changed and improved a lot since the 1940's. Or maybe 1946 was an especially slow year. The Newbery Committee, often not a great source for picking out the best in children's literature, decided this was the "most distinguished" contribution to children's literature in the USA that year and gave it the 1947 Newbery Medal. What an honor for a talking, animated twig of an apple tree with a hickory nut head.

She was hard headed and stubborn. She missed out on important events because of her unwillingness to participate. Miss Hickory was a nut! On a twig! With clothes! She loved to improve her wardrobe. But this book was more than just over-wintering with a lonely, abandoned, desolate twig/nut lady. It was about the many animals that frequented that area: squirrel, crow, chipmunk, deer, groundhog, partridges, and robins.

Each chapter was like a little story about a specific animal and usually Miss Hickory was involved. The chapter about the deer was disturbing, as well as the penultimate chapter that detailed Miss Hickory's last encounter with a squirrel.

I would not give this book to a child. Interestingly enough, my copy came to me used. It once belonged to an elementary school near Charlotte, North Carolina. It looks like it is brand new. It is stamped on the title page: "Elon Park Elementary School / Library Media Center." On the back cover a "Date Due" label shows it was never checked out. I can only be grateful that most likely, no child ever read this copy and (lucky me) I got a copy of the book that's hardcover and amazingly clean.

I am glad I got through this book. The chapters weren't terribly terrible, for the most part, but the book didn't hold my interest. Of course, I'm not the target audience for a children's novel. I'm an old lady with a goal to read all the Newbery books whether I like them or not - and I guarantee you, I've read a lot of them that I did not and do not like. This is one for the bookshelf. I am glad that Miss HiCKory is now HiSTory as far as my reading list is concerned.

Good effort, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. I have to wonder if you planned the ending of this book from the beginning, or if you wrote by the seat of your pants as they say, one chapter at a time, meandering toward a misty murky "the end." Maybe you got as tired of Miss Hickory as I did. However, the final chapter put a nice spin on the entire tale and God knows we love springtime!

Side note: The lithograph illustrations by Ruth Gannett are lovely, even in black and white. ...more

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