Palmer Brown (1920–2012) was born in Chicago and attended Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania. He was the author and illustrator of five books for children: Something for Christmas, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees and its sequel The Silver Nutmeg, Cheerful, and Hickory—all published by The New York Review Children’s Collection.
Books
Hickory
When Hickory moves from the grandfather clock where he lives with the rest of his mouse family to the open country, he discovers friendship, the changing seasons and the sometimes joyous, sometimes melancholy, cycle of life. Hickory is not only a lovely tale, it is a field guide to the common plants and flowers of spring, summer, and autumn.
Cheerful
Cheerful is a city mouse who spends his days frolicking in the church where he lives with his siblings, but he longs for the country, where mice run free. Palmer Brown’s filigreed drawings turn this story into an instrument of enchantment as glorious as the sugar-spun Easter egg that conveys Cheerful to his pastoral home.
The Silver Nutmeg
The Silver Nutmeg continues the adventures begun in Beyond the Pawpaw Trees, and features loads of sense, a little nonsense, and more delightful verses from Anna Lavinia’s beloved Songs from Nowhere. Best of all, fans of Palmer Brown’s intricate drawings will find every page a delight for the eyes.
Beyond the Pawpaw Trees
Beyond the Pawpaw Trees is a tour through a land as strange and wonderful as Oz, filled with people as delightfully batty as any in Alice’s looking glass. It is a book to which you will want to return again and again, to read of Anna Lavinia’s adventures and to marvel over author and illustrator Palmer Brown’s intricate, sugar-spun drawings.
Something for Christmas
Sweet, charming, and as magical as a wrapped gift. This is the story of a little mouse’s search for a very special gift for a very special person. Nothing seemed just right. Then the little mouse realized that the very best present of all was already at hand.