Barbara Marquardt
Squirrel Girl
language
(Instar Books July 1, 2008)
In this humorous fantasy for all ages, Squirrel Girl, a passenger pigeon, and a calico cat attempt to organize the wildlife to try to save the colonial forests and their own lives. With the unknowing help of the calico cat’s human partner, a radical Spanish naturalist, Squirrel Girl and her friends take on the seemingly impossible. Determined to do some good and justify the fact that her mother died to save her life, she gets predators and prey to cooperate for one spectacular attempt to discourage settlers and send them back home. There is a clear villain, Finn, a man who enslaves the indentured servants he brings to America and forces them to clear the land for development, and most animals are more than willing to fight against him. But her cause is hopeless, because the stream of settlers is endless, and most of them are not like Finn but are just struggling like the wild critters to exist. So Squirrel Girl takes on one last challenge—coexistence with man.