Customer Reviews

Beyond the Pawpaw Trees: The Story of Anna Lavinia

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This book is absolutely lovely and completely divine. I used to read it at my grandma's house and then the pages fell out of the book. Without consulting me Grandma threw the book away! I was heartbroken and even worse--I couldn't remember the title or the author, only that there was a train that stopped when the tracks came together on the horizon and there were camels, tea cosies and a floating oasis. Luck was with me the other day at the friends of the San Francisco Library book sale and I was reunited with the story. Fearing I had made it into something greater than it had really been (you know they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, etc) I read it quickly. To my delight it is still one of the best, most charming and imaginitave stories I have ever read. It's written in a loose and conspiratorial manner with line drawings on nearly every page (and a map! in the center). I too wish they would reprint this book and its sequel, because I want to give the book to all of my friends.

Dear reader, beware the last review if you haven't read the book--he tells you the end!

I read this book as a very small child and was fortunate for me that my mother saved this book from her own childhood. This is a wonderful story to read, as well as look at the curious yet charming drawings of the author's renditions of pawpaws, pawpaw trees, Anna Lavina(the heroine), her mother, father, a mirage, even Anna's cat, Strawberry(which by account of another character is the exact color of raspberry fluff), and more. The story begins with Anna Lavina, a young girl who lives alone with her mother in a distant house, set behind a grove of pawpawtrees. Anna sets off on an adventure to travel to her aunt's house, and the story takes off. Anna's father is missing through part of the story, as he is "off chasing rainbows". Anna sees and hears her world with such a charming nature as to be irresistable. Anna avoids blue spots on the carpet, as they are "unlucky", observes the sky as the color of "forget-me-nots", travels in a train with a woman with as many packages as she is large, meets her aunt on a floating mirage, and manages to find her father as well as the end of all the rainbows. Derived with so much imagination and sweetness, this book will be a delight to share with your children.

This children's book is a companion volume to The Silver Nutmeg, two utterly charming, whimsical, fascinating, and inventive books about Anna Lavinia and her family and pets. Wonderfully unusual fantasy situations happen to Anna Lavinia in her child's world. Both books are so delightful that when I read one as a child, I never forgot it.

This book was given to me as a small child. I loved it then and I still love it now. I make it a point to reread it every year or so. Now my children get to hear it read and they love it too. I just found out that there is a second book called The Silver Nutmeg. I would love for these books to be rereleased in the original splendor. They capture the imagination and help it to soar.

This book really makes your imagination soar. I read it when I was in grade school and saved it all these years. I am now sharing this wonderful story with my children, neices and friends. They all love this story. This is really a story that should be told to children and adults of all ages. I really wish someone would republish this in it's exact form without any changes. I don't recommend paying the high fees people are trying to get for it but maybe you can find it at a library or used book store for less. Good luck.

I loved this book so much as a little girl. I would love to be able to give copies of it to all the kids I know.

I wish Harper Collins would reprint it.

This book has just been reissued for the first time in decades. I read its sequel, The Silver Nutmeg, when I was in third grade and never forgot it; in fact, I credit that book as stimulating my lifelong love of fantasy. I was never able to find Beyond the Paw-Paw Trees at a price that I could afford. Now, I have my OWN copy! It was worth the wait--a gentle, amusing, little tale that reflect how children look at the world, answering the question of what happens when the end of the line comes and the railroad tracks merge into one. This rates with CS Lewis' Narnia and any other "children's" book that adults also love.

The copy we had kicking around during my childhood was worn and without a dust jacket, so I don't know why I picked it up. But it's one of the extraordinary books I remembered with great fondness, one that I've been searching for and have been disappointed to find was out of print. Wondering whether the book was as good as I remembered it, I obtained it through interlibrary loan, and read it to my eight-year-old daughter, who was just as taken with it as I had been. The story in brief: Anna Lavinia's mother sets her on a journey to find her dreamy father. Palmer Brown's storytelling, though, is where it's at. The narrative has a dreamlike quality without the (what I think) unpleasant taste of Lewis Carroll's Alice books. Beyond the Pawpaw Trees is magical, the way Where the Wild Things Are or Andrew Henry's Meadow is. It fires up the brain and draws me in the way The Seamstress of Salzburg or Ellen Raskin's books did. Do. In short, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees' magic is difficult to quantify, but it is charming--a total delight.

This wonderful little book has just been reprinted courtesy of the New York Book Review Children's Collection and it landed on my doorstep this morning (25/10/2011) - standard shipping from the US to UK in a week (which is amazing in itself). I am going to sit down this afternoon and read it but a quick glance tells me I will not be disappointed. Thank goodness the original illustrations have been preserved so I can enjoy it in all its glory.

This is one of those amazing books from my childhood that was never forgotten. It is a beautiful hard-bound version with the original "sugar-spun" drawings. I got it for my niece in hopes that she will cherish it as much as I did.