Emily Hughes (1)

I absolutely love this book. It's about a little girl who lives in the woods with the animals. One day, a family finds her and brings her home. They try to make her 'normal'--speaking correctly, playing with toys nicely, taking a bath, etc. She becomes very VERY unhappy and eventually completely destroys their house. AND THEN THEY PUT HER BACK IN THE WOODS! I thought that was absolutely hilarious! They were just like 'you know what, you're obviously not happy here. Your feelings are valid. You belong in the woods.' I can see how some parents may see this as promoting bad behavior to get what you want, but I see it more as 'everyone has feelings and thoughts, they might be different from yours, and that's okay. You should let everyone be themselves, even if it seems strange to you. Just because it's strange doesn't mean it's wrong.' It was also not lost on me that the girl exhibits behaviors often associated with Autism and other IDDs--nonverbal, struggles to express her feelings, plays with toys differently than expected, vocalizes in 'unusual' ways, etc. I love this book. So much.… (altro)

The main character's face is very, very expressive. The art in this book is just beautiful...so detailed and wonderful! It's about a little girl somehow abandoned in the forest, who is taken in by the forest creatures and lives a happy, feral life. Until one day she's discovered by some hipster hunters (or, I guess, they caught her in their bear trap? Only her hair was caught but that's pretty harsh, hipsters. Is using a bear trap really sporting? They take her to live with Famed Psychiatrist and his wife (presumably I'm supposed to assume the man is Famed Psychiatrist because he's the one measuring her head and taking notes while the lady just brushes the kid's hair and tries to cut her meat...but technically the lady could be Famed Psychiatrist while her significant other is her assistant. But I don't think I'm supposed to think that) and they just get mad at her for not learning even though it doesn't look like she's been there very long and so when she runs away they're just like "good riddance" which will be hard to explain to the papers but whatever. Famed Psychiatrist's dog and cat escape with our friend as well and live happy lives in harmony with the animals of the forest because this is a magical forest where predator and prey hang out and don't kill each other. I don't know what the bears and foxes eat but that's not the point of this story - the point is, you do you. I really like the magic in this book actually, because I would love to imagine that there are forests that exist where all the animals love each other and never die and people can have plants for hair. Probably somewhere in Europe.

ETA: of course I know what the bears and foxes eat, because there was a whole page dedicated to it that I apparently forgot, they eat fish. Sorry fish, you don't belong in our happy family of animals!… (altro)