Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse by Dorothy Burroughes, and: The Magic Herb by Dorothy Burroughes

Abstract

Reviewed by: Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse by Dorothy Burroughes, and: The Magic Herb by Dorothy Burroughes Jan Susina (bio) Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse. By Dorothy Burroughes, edited by Jack Zipes. Little Mole and Honey Bear, 2021. The Magic Herb. By Dorothy Burroughes, edited by Jack Zipes. Little Mole and Honey Bear, 2021. The most recent reprints in Jack Zipes's Fabulous Excavated Tales series are two books written and illustrated by Dorothy Burroughes. Popular during the 1930s and 1940s, Burroughes is a British children's author who is rarely mentioned in the histories of children's literature but is still held in high regard as a print maker and poster artist. Trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, Burroughes's first major success as a commercial artist was designing posters in 1920 for the London Underground that encouraged visitors to the London Zoo in Regent's Park. Drawn in the style of Japanese woodcuts, her image of Langur monkeys became popular with the public. Her second zoo poster, known as "the monkey poster," became the most requested poster in the history of the London Underground and is reprinted in both volumes along with her striking print of "The Black Panther." In the 1930s and 1940s, Burroughes was considered one of the leading British animal artists, along with Harry Rountree and Cecil Aldin. Many of her twenty children's books, like her better-known posters and prints, focus on animals and animal rights. Burroughes established her reputation as an animal artist with her prints and posters often featuring animals that she sketched at the Regent's Park Zoo and was awarded a Zoological Society Fellowship for her animal artwork. Yet she expressed mixed feelings about zoos and restricting animals in cages. In addition to illustrating informational books on animals such as Queer Beasts at the Zoo (1927) and Queer Birds at the Zoo (1927), Burroughes also wrote children's stories featuring anthropomorphized creatures that address social issues and emphasize the need to treat animals with respect and kindness. While Burroughes uses watercolor illustrations interspersed with linocuts in her children's books, her stories are longer and more complicated than those by Beatrix Potter and are intended for older readers. Her chummy and social world of animals more closely resembles that of Kenneth Grahame in [End Page 445] The Wind in the Willows, without the humorous escapades of Mr. Toad that A.A. Milne admired. The Magic Herb shows a bit of Lewis Carroll influence. Three badgers go on a quest for the Magic Herb to aid their seriously ill baby brother. To obtain the mysterious plant, they must journey to the Magic Isle where the white plant is guarded by the Dodo and the Unicorn. Burroughes draws the Dodo so he resembles John Tenniel's illustration of the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Dodo, who initially appears rather fierce, is just "a little embittered by being misunderstood" (19). He is moved by the unselfish nature of the badgers' quest. As the Unicorn explains to the badgers, he and the Dodo are tasked with the responsibility of preventing the life-restoring plant from falling into the wrong hands, such as "pompous scientists and people who-want-towrite-to-the-papers" about discovery of this rare species. The selfless nature of the badgers' quest is reminiscence of Gluck's journey in John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River. The badgers succeed on their impossible journey, liberate the Dodo and the Unicorn from their long-term duties as protectors of the Magic Herb, and restore their younger brother to health, all a result of their selflessness. Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse is an updated version of Aesop's "Country Mouse and City Mouse." Teddy is an elegant mouse who wears a smart gray coat with clean white collars. He accompanies his human family when they vacate London for the country for the duration of the War. Burroughes uses animal figures to comfort younger readers who were moved from the cities to escape Nazi bombing during World War II. Teddy is befriended by the Brown Mouse family who introduce him to the rural world of cows, pigs...