The Secret River

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Leo Dillon (Illustrator) and Diane Dillon (Illustrator)

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Book cover for The Secret River

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Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings + Leo and Diane Dillon = pure magic!
A depression era story that is just as timely as it is enchanting, this is a stunning picture book for the ages.

There’s just not enough…not enough money, not enough food, not enough fish for her daddy to sell at the market. Hard times have come to the forest, but Calpurnia wants to turn them back into soft times. With her little dog Buggy Horse and a tip from old Mother Albirtha, the wisest person in the forest, Calpurnia finds a secret river and uses the pink paper roses from her hair to catch enough beautiful catfish to feed the whole swamp land —with some left over for Daddy to sell. When she tries to find the river again the next day, Mother Albirtha tells her, “Child, sometimes a thing happens once, and does not ever happen anymore….You caught catfish when catfish were needed…you will not find the river again.” This story by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Yearling and literary icon Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is about living in a time of want, yet it is overflowing with riches—stunning language, mystical happenings, wondrous, wondrous artwork. Beautiful in all ways that a book can be beautiful, this unforgettable picture book is a classic in the making.
  • ISBN10 1416911790
  • ISBN13 9781416911791
  • Publish Date 15 February 2013 (first published 1 October 1987)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 11 June 2021
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher Simon & Schuster
  • Imprint Atheneum Books for Young Readers
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 56
  • Language English