The Wily Woodchucks

2009
Author:

Georgia Travers
Illustrations by Flavia Gág

A summer getaway to All Creation brings furry, hungry surprises

Written by the childhood friend and biographer of Wanda Gág and illustrated by Wanda’s younger sister Flavia, The Wily Woodchucks portrays the Gág family’s real-life encounter with hungry woodchucks at their summer home in New Jersey in the 1930s. With this captivating book, Georgia Travers has given us not just a whimsical tale of summertime mischief but also a charming episode from the private life of an influential American author and artist.

Gardeners, young and old, who have seen their strawberries snatched by birds, their carrots nibbled by rabbits, and their corn carried off by squirrels will read with amusement this true story.

New York Times, 1946

Meet Pudgy and Charles, two sleepy and thoroughly content woodchucks that live in the countryside. Their neighbors are a kind family whose marvelous garden is bursting with fresh vegetables—just the thing hungry woodchucks love to eat! Each day Pudgy and Charles waddle down the path, crawl through the garden fence, and eat to their hearts’ content—beans and sweet corn, carrots and lettuce, and squashes galore. The only problem is they don’t know when to stop, and their gorging is ruining the perfectly plotted garden. The family realizes they’re in quite a pickle: how do you keep two greedy woodchucks from eating everything in sight? When fences of every kind don’t work, the decisions get more difficult. And all the while, Pudgy and Charles are getting bigger and bigger . . .

Written by the childhood friend and biographer of well-known artist Wanda Gág and richly illustrated by Wanda’s younger sister Flavia, The Wily Woodchucks portrays the Gág family’s real-life encounter with hungry woodchucks at their summer home in New Jersey in the 1930s. With this captivating book, Georgia Travers has given us not just a whimsical tale of summertime mischief but also a charming and revealing episode from the private life of an influential American author and artist.

Georgia Travers (Alma Schmidt Scott) wrote several children’s books, including The Story of Kattor, also illustrated by Flavia Gág, and a biography of Wanda Gág.

Flavia Gág was the younger sister of the famed author and illustrator Wanda Gág. She wrote and illustrated a number of children’s and young adult books.

Gardeners, young and old, who have seen their strawberries snatched by birds, their carrots nibbled by rabbits, and their corn carried off by squirrels will read with amusement this true story.

New York Times, 1946

This book offers a charming, if rare, glimpse into Wanda Gág’s childhood.

The Book Children