318H: A Navajo Girl and Her Donkey (Solved!)

I am looking for a children’s book from the 1940’s to early 50’s about a Navajo Indian girl who goes into the desert with her donkey to find something—a puppy?  Gorgeous illustrations.

3 thoughts on “318H: A Navajo Girl and Her Donkey (Solved!)

  1. Kirsten Donaldson Wheal

    I have a feeling I might be able to solve this later, as I think I recognise the girl and her donkey as being featured in a book I had as a child (and I think my mother still has it). The book is The Lion Christmas book and it contains a lot of excerpts from longer stories. I’ll have a look when I can!

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  2. Kirsten Donaldson Wheal

    I looked at the Lion Christmas Book (which seems to have been published in the States under the title “Our Family Christmas Book” and it turns out I was conflating two stories, “Don Pedro’s Christmas” (which has the donkey) by Eric P Keely, and “Chi-Wee’s Special Present” by Grace P Moon.

    Looking at the Wikipedia entry for Grace P Moon, I think it’s not unlikely that she is the author you’re looking for, but I couldn’t pinpoint which book it might be. She died in 1947 but did write several children’s books with a Navajo background, one of which was a Newbery Honor book. Her husband Carl Moon did the illustrations.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Moon

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