Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era

In the summer of 1918, eleven-year-old Sterling North and his enormous St. Bernard, Wowser, bring home a tiny baby raccoon from the southern Wisconsin woods. Sterling names him Rascal, and the two quickly become inseparable. Sterling's mother has died and his sisters have grown up and moved away, so he lives with his father in a household that already shelters an unusual collection of pets, including a crow named Poe. As Rascal grows, his curiosity carries him into neighbors' cornfields and all kinds of mischief, and Sterling must face hard questions about what is best for his wild friend. Sterling North's memoir of his own boyhood was a Newbery Honor book.