Nana's Book Library

Contains four smaller books, also available separately: The Foxwood Treasure, The Foxwood Regatta, The Foxwood Smugglers, and The Foxwood Surprise.  Written in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988.  

• Age: 2+
• Particulars (Out of 5):   
  • Very exciting stories *****  
  • Beautiful, detailed illustrations ***** 
  • Inappropriate language:  None.
  • Sexual references:  None.   

Reminder: Nana’s Books are rated G.  Anyone could read them, or listen to them being read aloud.

This is truly a treasury, because each of the four books is exciting all on its own.  They’re all grippers!  Beautifully illustrated, they are on a Wind in the Willows level of sweetness and engagement.  That’s why I didn’t put an upper age limit.  If you’re a child, or a child at heart, I hope you will come to love the village of Foxwood.  It’s a wonderful place to visit, with Willy Hedgehog, Harvey Mouse, and Rue Rabbit, along with their families and various townsfolk.    

The Foxwood Treasure:   Foxwood really needs a village hall.  They can’t keep meeting in Mrs. Mole’s house (especially as Mr. Gruffey, the badger, keeps banging his wooden mallet on Mrs. Mole’s best polished table to call the meeting to order!)  Willy, Harvey and Rue want to do their part.  Prompted by Grandpa to study the village’s history, they learn about some very wealthy residents of the town in the old days, about a magnificent den, hidden and forgotten somewhere deep in the woods, and about Squire Fox, who once served special lemonade that was so good, woodfolk came from far and wide to drink it.  If only Harvey, Willy, and Rue could find that secret recipe!  They could make money to help the village!  And if they could find Squire Fox’s den, they might just find their new village hall!

The Foxwood Regatta:  Oh, no!  The Foxwood Regatta (boat race) is only two weeks away.  Every team must make its own boat – but the sneaky rats will be competing, with their own boat that has some unpleasant surprises!  Willy sees the rats ram the squirrels – and then, with Rue and Harvey, they spy those rascals fitting sharp, pointed poles instead of oars on their boat!  These poles could easily poke a hole in someone’s boat and sink it!   The three friends seek help from Captain Otter, who draws up a plan for a beautiful boat, the Duchess of Foxwood – built with thick, sturdy planks that will be hard to break.  The rats try to cheat their way to victory, ramming a boat of hedgehogs, stealing the firewood to power the Duchess’s steam engine, and throwing so many flour bombs at another boat that the poor rabbits on board can’t see – and then crashing into them!  Those cheaters!  At last, the Duchess pulls ahead and is poised to win – but then the friends realize the rabbits can’t swim!  They have to save them!

The Foxwood Smugglers:  Because they found the secret lemonade recipe, the village of Foxwood decreed that Willy, Harvey and Rue get free lemonade forever.  But when they go to Mr. Gruffey’s shop for their special lemonade, there isn’t any – because thieves have been stealing from the shop! It’s those darn rats again.  Grandpa Hedgehog and Mr. Gruffey have tried to stay up for three nights to catch the thieves, but “It’s not as easy to keep awake as we thought,” as Mr. Gruffey admits.  He needs help to catch these bandits!  But he has to leave town to fix up his caravan (camper) by the sea, and he will be gone for days – and that will mean many days without making the special lemonade.  Harvey, Rue and Willy help him fix up his caravan, hoping to speed things along, and they sure do:  they discover the smugglers’ hiding place!  And that’s just the beginning of the action: they get stranded at a lighthouse, rescued by Mr. Gruffey and Captain Otter, Willy falls in and is rescued again just in time – because the rats are coming after them!

The Foxwood Surprise:  It’s almost Christmas, and Willy, Harvey and Rue hope to raise money to buy presents.  They try singing Christmas carols in the neighborhood, but that doesn’t work out too well.  Next, they work hard to collect firewood to sell – but just then, a little badger runs in with the news that a carriage has overturned in the woods!  The three friends use the toboggans they have just built, plus all their firewood, to hoist the carriage, owned by a fox who turns out to be the new Squire, back onto its wheels.  They learn that the little badger is named Jeremy, and he’s an orphan who lives all alone!  Will he find a home?

This four-book treasury is available on Amazon, and the individual books are also available separately on Amazon, eBay and Abebooks.   The Foxwood Treasury also seems to be available to read on Open Library.

©Janet Farrar Worthington

Note:  I am an Amazon affiliate, so if you do click a link and buy a book, I will theoretically make a small amount of money, but I’m just starting this thing, so I don’t even know how that works.   Still, full disclosure, etc.