"Since 1932, OU Press has published six works by John Joseph Mathews, five of which are still in print, making Mathews a quintessential OU Press author. In her introduction, Susan Kalter provides a poignant personal portrait of Mathews that traces the inspirations for and the creation of the short stories in the collection. We learn that Mathews not only wanted to create stories accessible to children and young adults but aimed to articulate his own fondness for the animal world and nature in his short fiction. The result is a collection of stories that have aged very well and that are today, fifty years after they were written, perhaps even more timely and relevant to discussions of ecology, identity, and the place of people in their environment" --