“There’s one book I’ve been searching for the title of for YEARS. I can only remember the illustrations in my head. It’s set in a garden–two girls leave their mom and go into the woods. They have long hair, no shoes, dresses. I feel like the book was a religious undertone of god and angels. The girls found another house in the woods–an old man gave them food and shelter. He had a German Shepherd. I feel like, if memory serves me right, the man was hinted to being God in plain human form. When the girls went back to their mom, she was very old–and they were still young. The book was more full page layout illustrations than wordy. Does anyone have any idea what I’m speaking of?? Id be EVER so grateful to have this mystery solved. Librarians and Google Searches have been left scratching their heads.”
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I wanna guess the book was created in the late 80s or 90s–leaning towards 90s, but I really don’t know. Hope you can help!! 🙂
If it was possibly just one girl, the book is Dear Mili, a rediscovered Grimm story, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The other details and the time frame match.
This has to be ‘Dear Mili’ by Wilhelm Grimm and Maurice Sendak.
“On September 28, 1983, the discovery of a previously unknown tale by Wilhelm Grimm was reported on the front page of The New York Times. “After more than 150 years,” the Times noted, “Hansel and Gretel, Snow-White, Rumpelstiltskin, and Cinderella will be joined by another Grimm fairy-tale character.” The story of dear Mili was preserved in a letter Wilhelm Grimm wrote to a little girl in 1816, a letter that remained in her family’s possession for over a century and a half. It tells of a mother who sends her daughter into the forest to save her from a terrible war. The child comes upon the hut of an old man, who gives her shelter, and she repays his kindness by serving him faithfully for what she thinks are three days. Actually, thirty years have passed, but Mili has remained safe, and with the old man’s blessing there is still time for a tender reunion with her mother. As for the pictures that interpret Dear Mili—hailed by School Library Journal as “gorgeous”—they were a milestone in Maurice Sendak’s career, the work of a master at the height of his powers.”
The other little girl in the book is actually Mili’s guardian angel, who leads her safely through the woods.
You can see some of the gorgeous illustrations here, including the two girls (barefoot, in long dresses and with long hair) and the old man with the German Shepherd dog lying behind his chair.