Customer Reviews

Crows of Pearblossom

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Since my earliest memories (app. ages 3 and 4) I have loved and treasured this book. Even before I could read, the animal characters within were well-beloved friends of mine, simply through the pictures. I was thrilled when my parents would read it to me, and when I learned to read myself I was proud to be able to get through it on my own. It was only much later, when I actually knew who Huxley was and realized he was the author of one of my favorite early childhood books, that I learned to love it for its historic context as well.

This book comes from an interesting background. Others have already commented on the time period Huxley wrote it in--during the second World War. It is his only children's book and he wrote it not for publication but for Olivia, the young daughter of his nextdoor neighbors (human characters who are actually referred to by name in the course of the book, further personalizing this effort of Huxley's.) There were only two copies, Huxley's and the one belonging to these neighbors. The first was destroyed in a fire that broke out in the Huxley home. The second was published following his death.

While I recognize the problem a previous reader had with this book, I must respectfully disagree. That "The Crows of Pearblossom" has a certain morbidity is in fact partly the point. Looking back on most successful children's stories, we see that they often have elements of the violent or morbid, since the first time the Big Bad Wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood and beyond. That children be acquainted by these means with some of the more unpleasant aspects of life is important. If they don't encounter them through a relatively harmless and provocative medium like a bed-time story, they can only become acquainted with them through other means, frequently personal experience, which can be infinitely more detrimental to the child than a story like Huxley's "Crows." Children need to be prepared to deal with life, and a story like this can provide a means for doing so.

All of this aside, "The Crows" also presents interesting and likeable animal characters, with the exception of the snake, (though as a child I actually rather got a kick out of him and the little song he sings) and is not without its humorous points. The idea of an owl shaving, for example, still makes me chuckle. The story itself teaches an important lesson about how not to accept an unacceptable situation, and how to use personal ingenuity and intelligence against brute strength, in an easily understood format. It also embraces a certain lighter-hearted, more fanciful spirit than readers of "Brave New World" may have known Huxley could posess.

This is my three year old daughter's favorite book. She doesn't know that it was supposedly written as a allegory to World War II. She just likes the characters in the story. My wife and I get a kick out of it because it is just like life. "Why don't you go down into the snake's hole and kill him" (That's my job!) But I reply, "Somehow I don't think that's a good idea," and so the story goes.
Jordan likes this book so I'm not going to write in a lot of psycho-babble. Maybe she sees a problem within a family that has to be solved. And it is! Maybe she sees a threat to a family that the parents must solve. And they do! Perhaps she just doesn't like snakes and feels he got what he deserves. If you have this book, it is a classic in the true sense of the word, to be treasured.

Quite apart from the dire, apocalyptic tone of Brave New World, Mr. and Mrs. Crow live in an idyllic world on the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Their domestic problem is an allegory for many of the problems we face in the adult world. I grew up in a small town just west of Pearblossom. When I was 8 or 9, a copy of the book was given to me by a close relative of Olivia's who still lived in Pearblossom. I will always thank Rose de Haulleville for giving me my first exposure to Huxley's writing. Of course it was many more years before I appreciated books like Brave New World or Antic Hay, however I have always remembered the crows in their nest in Pearblossom as my own form of non-pharmaceutical soma ;-)

Mr. and Mrs. Crow are having difficulty raising a family as their neighbor, the rattlesnake, keeps stealing every egg Mrs. Crow lays. How Mr. Crow and his friend, Mr. Owl, solve the problem will delight any child. The story, written by a classic author best known for his science fiction/political commentary, is reminiscent of a fable in the tradition of Aesop. It is simply and elegantly written for children in the 6 to 9 age group. It lends itself beautifully to reading aloud to a child.

i acquired this book as a child and my father read it to me and my brother over and over again. now my brother has a child and i have given this beautiful story book to him. this is the only childrens book aldous huxley ever wrote and he wrote it for a child, i believe her name was olivia, that he cared for very deeply, not having children of his own. it is a story of love, family and the trials and tribulations of life. how to conquer evil with good. i recieved this book through weelky reader as a child, too bad more children don't have that opportunity today.

Until recently I had no idea Huxley had authored a children's book. But when I stumbled onto a listing for it, I knew I had to have it. I found an old 70's Weekly Reader copy with the original Barbara Cooney illustrations, which are exquisite, memorable, and remind me in a nostalgic sort of way of the black and white illustrations of Garth Williams in the Tall Book of Make Believe, my all-time favorite children's book.

The story is a well-written, fun-to-read fable. In some reviews it's judged as being harsh and gruesome, and if you're the sort who is liable to find older (pre-70's) children's literature and the themes within to be disagreeable, this one will likely disturb. There are a lot of really 'safe' books out there, and this one - no - does not fall into that category.

The story is that of a crow couple, the wife of whom has been losing her newly laid eggs and one day stumbles onto the smug culprit in the act. She is devastated, and there is a little tiff between husband and wife when he arrives home that I, personally, found to be rather amusing. Mr. Crow resolves to fix this problem by consulting with his wiser friend and neighbor - the owl. And while I agree with another reviewer that there are sexist overtones to the story, the owl treats both Mr. and Mrs. Crow as hysterical, so it's not so neatly in that camp as I had feared having read that review previous to purchasing. In any case, the owl's plan to replace Mrs. Crow's eggs with hard-baked clay look-alikes works marvelously, and when Mrs. Crow returns home the following day, the snake, having devoured the eggs rather grossly (he has no manners, we are told - and this does give him an odd sort of appeal), has developed a bellyache and thrashed about so that he has tied each of his ends to opposite branches of the tree. The Crow family takes advantage of the snake's well-deserved misfortune and uses him as a clothesline and go on to bear many children now that the threat has been eliminated.

Is that morbid? Oh, I suppose. It's also a bit amusing and repulsive and odd enough to be memorable. It's not scary. If you want to scare the wits out of a kid, get Galdone's version of Tailypo. That gives me the creeps and I'm an adult. It's the only book I've ever vanquished to a high shelf for later. Much later.

The Crows of Pearblossom isn't scary. It's a fable with a bad guy who meets a bad end. There's really something that's just solid about the whole tale. It works, it's likable, Huxley's chosen words and phrases and various scenes carefully, and the accompanying illustrations for each carry the story along beautifully.

Personally, I'd snap up a copy of this before Disney discovers it and has the whole lot of 'em singing and dancing and becoming fast friends and learning to share in the end, with the snake loaning himself out as a clothesline willingly, encouraging the book police to begin a chant that the original should be gentrified to contain values relevant to our modern society. Just what are those values anyway?

I remember sitting outside with my brothers and siters snuggled with our mother while she read about the crows and their quest to have a nest full of children. It was a favorite of us all and now I can share the book with my daughter! I know she'll love it as much as I do!

If you were a bird, and a snake that lives in the same tree where you do eats your eggs for a snack each day, what would you do? Mr. and Mrs. Crow have a nest in a cottonwood tree at Pearblossom. A rattlesnake lives in a hole at the bottom of the same tree. Most of the time he sleeps, but every afternoon at half past three, when Mrs. Crow is away doing her shopping, he climbs up the tree and eat her egg. She wonders what is happening, but one day, she returns home early and sees the snake. When Mr. Crow comes home that evening from Palmdale, where he works as an Assistant Manager in the drugstore, his wife tells him what has been going on.
Mrs. Crow wants her husband to go down immediately into the snake's hole and kill him. However, Mr. Crow doesn't think that this is a good idea. He isn't scared, but he probably knows how dangerous it would be. So he flies over to the tall poplar in Mr. Yost's garden where Old Man Owl lives and explains the situation. What kind of plan will Old Man Owl and Mr. Crow devise to solve the Crows' problem? And will it work? Aldous Huxley, who lived from 1894 to 1963, is best remembered for his dystopian novel Brave New World (1932). The Crows of Pearblossom is his only children's story. He wrote in 1944 and gave it to his niece, Olivia, as a Christmas present. After the Huxley's had moved to the Antelope Valley of California's Mojave Desert in 1937, Olivia's family followed and lived in the nearby town of Pearblossom. The original manuscript, returned to Huxley to be illustrated, was destroyed in a fire.
Fortunately, the Huxley's neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Yost (who owned the tall poplar in which Old Man Owl lived), had kept a copy of the story. It was not published until 1967, when it came out in a small-format edition illustrated with black and white drawings by Barbara Cooney, but that version has long been out of print. Olivia desired to create a new, full-color edition to realize more fully the potential of her uncle's story. Stephanie Blackall's wonderfully detailed illustrations bring the witty animal characters to life. On one level the book is a charming story for children to read. Then on a deeper level, we see the negative example of Rattlesnake's greed, the positive example of Mr. Crow's discretion, and the general example of how good can triumph over evil. I am glad that it is once again available for young people today.

This is such an odd review. I have before me a children's book that I love but I can't recommend it for young kids. My version of THE CROWS OF PEARBLOSSOM is the 1967 copyright hardback with Barbara Cooney as the illustrator. The pictures are done in shades of black, white, gray and green. The crows and owl inspire me when I look at them. Invigorating, I would recommend this older version to any mixed media artists who need motivation with this theme.

Gardeners will enjoy it as a reminder of those clever animals who may hinder or help the shared space of land they use with these critters. My copy is kept in a special place when I want to view the pictures. A family of six crows that regularly visit our home are muses for me. When they see me while I am working in the yard they both entertain and cause me to think. I know that they are smart little buggars. I also hear my owl at night; he or she is a reminder of someone guarding the property from pests.

Now, on to the story's contents. THE CROWS OF PEARBLOSSOM is the only children's story ever written by Aldous Huxley, the famous English novelist, essayist and critic. He wrote it for his five-year-old niece, Olivia, during a Christmas holiday in 1944. Her brother Siggy is mentioned in the story, too. I have young grandsons who love me to read to them but, besides the pictures, the book doesn't really interest either of them. In some ways it reminds me of a fable from long ago. The story is meant to teach a lesson. As an adult I can appreciate his writing but IMHO he is not a children's author. There is a reason he did not write other books for kids.

The mother crow's eggs have been eaten daily by a snake for a long time. When she approaches her husband about the situation and insinuates that he may be scared of going up against the snake he responds "your ideas are seldom good...I shall go and talk to my friend Owl....his ideas are always good." When Mr. Crow and Owl return to the upset Mrs. Crow the husband responds, "you talk too much. Keep your beak shut and get out of your nest". Somehow I just don't think this is something I would want young children to read. Mrs. Crow comes across as whiney and stupid. Owl is the brains and yet he and Mr. Crow are not mentioned after the the fake eggs are put in the nest to show children that the three of them can have a HEA. I know, I know, I am putting too much thought into this but there are so many better books out there for children to read. If you are looking for good childrens' entertainment try something else.

This is a terrific children's story that is wonderful fun for adults too. Buy it and enjoy reading to your kids or grandkids.