The old tree looked lonesome and deserted to the boy from the city, but the girl from the country told him to keep his eyes open and he would see plenty of interesting lodgers. He did, from the magpie in the attic to the thirteen field mice and their devoted mother tucked beneath the roots, and the radar bats, the tardy owl the small birds teased in the daytime, the praying mantis, the flying squirrels, the raccoon family that loved marmalade and the others lodged between them.

Richard Erdoes knows all these small creatures and their ways first hand, so his pictures of them are true to life as well as artistically beautiful and richly colorful. 16 illustrations in full color and 16 in black wash.

From the dust jacket