Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Lucinda the Little Donkey

Lucinda the Little Donkey
Irma Wilde
illustrations by George Wilde
Rand McNally & Company, 1952


One of the ever-popular Rand McNally Elf Book series, Lucinda is a naughty little donkey who takes great pleasure doing exactly the opposite of what Mr. Pinkney, the farmer, tells her. She prefers to break out of the barn nightly and act like whatever other farm animal strikes her fancy... leaving Mr. P more than a little flummoxed.

Mr. Pinkney looked and looked next morning and finally found her in the pigsty! She was eating corn and rolling in the mud -- pretending she was a pig!

That is until she wanders in the path of train No. 49 and inadvertently saves the day! Love it when the under-donkey turns hero. Couldn't find much on what I assume to be a husband wife/team except that they published a lot of similar books in the 50s. My copy, bought off of E-bay, was obviously well-loved and includes a masking tape spine with the child-scribbled inscription "Judy Vopat and Jim Vopat."

6 comments:

  1. I received this book from my dad for Christmas 1963. This was my very favourite book and I made my mother read it to me over and over again. I had the words memorized. I still have the book today and love it. And I also own a horse who looks amazingly like Lucinda, and equally as stubborn ♥

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  2. I inherited this book from an aunt when I was about 2 years old. Made my parents read it so many times it literally fell apart! To this day, my dad sometimes calls me "contrary Lucinda" (and I'm 36)...

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  3. Great story Jen! Thanks for sharing....

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  4. My grandmother use to read this to me every night I was at her house. I loved it and now I'm passing it down to my son.

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  5. My grandmother use to read this to me every night I was at her house. I loved it and now I'm passing it down to my son.

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