The Mistletoe Girl
Ethel Pochocki
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2001 Forest of Peace Publishing
ISBN: 0939516470

& other Christmas Stories. In Ethel Pochocki's eight stories we enter the ancient & mystical world of “Once upon a time...” as in:
The Mistletoe Girl -- when the gypsies come to town bringing wealth & worry.
That's the Way It Was -- in the heart of the woods lived an old oak tree near a cottage.
The White Rabbit -- when worried little brown rabbit meets a saint among men.
How M. Philippe Spent Christmas Eve -- a fox of high esteem & a great chef encounters a happy strangeness on this special night.
Cat's Christmas -- when an old woman moved into her new home, the cat who has always lived there, introduces herself.
The Attic Creche -- in which Gertude Mouse remembers Christmases past after her children find an abandoned Nativity treasure.
The Baker's Dog -- what the baker learns from Bruno, the starved junkyard guard dog.
A Christmas Tree for All Seasons -- how a little forest tree is taken home by a little girl & her father, & survives, in many different forms, throughout the year until the next Christmas Day.

One of the several things I like about Ethel Pochocki's writing is its rich old-fashioned storytelling, where animals talk, trees have feelings, & people think new thoughts. You will learn a little history, a little culture, as well as something about emotions -- joy, worry & compassion, & you will always have to think about “What would I do (or be) like under the same circumstances?” Or in the American way ask “Why?” ... & Ethel Pochocki will give you some ideas, in her inimitable, lyrical style.

I am, once again, awed by the artists Ethel Pochocki inspires to illustrate her works. For The Mistletoe Girl & Other Christmas Stories the great illustrator Peter LaGue teams up with her again, & together they have wrought a treasure for the ages.

Ethel Pochocki was born in 1925 & was raised in Bayonne, New Jersey. She now lives near Brooks, Maine. She has raised 8 children & written over 30 children's books. She also writes for Cricket, Church World & The Christian Science Monitor.

Illustrator Peter LaGue is a freelance artist who lives on a farm in the beautiful prairie hills of north Wamego, Kansas. He spends his time writing music, drawing, sculpting, landscaping his garden, & stuyding how to live in union with the natural environment.

More from Ethel Pochocki:
A Writer's Garden
Rosebud & Red Flannel
Soup Pot: Stories for All Seasons for Children of All Ages
The Gazebo
A Penny for a Hundred: A Story of Friendship, based on actual events in Aroostook County during World War II.
(11/02/03)

Rebecca