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.
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.
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!
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
Thank you. I think that it was “One Little Indian”