Mirror Images

"I'll call you Tawny It's a pretty name, don't you think?" Trey Landry asks the doe lying in his father's barn. Thus begins a love affair. The deer has been injured by a pack of dogs, and Trey tenderly helps nurse her back to health. The boy grasps at the love and companionship of the animal to fill the emptiness left by the death of his twin brother Troy, who had been shot by poachers a few months earlier. The boy was mistaken for a deer.

Losing his twin brother was for Trey like losing a part of himself. The two boys were mirror images of one another; Troy was as carefree and impulsive as Trey is cautious and serious. As each season of the year unfolds, past events which had been shared by the twin brothers intrude constantly on Trey's memory. But the year with Tawny is almost too much to bear for the sensitive boy just entering his teens. Tawny brings warmth and joy to Trey's life, but she brings difficult lessons as well as he comes to realize that she must be freed to be a wild animal.

The setting for earner's story is a dairy farm in southeastern New Hampshire, the time about 20 years ago. It is a story of kind, gentle people who must deal with a world which includes natural disasters and thoughtless hunters. The tastes, pleasures, sights, and chores of New Hampshire farm life are easy to feel as the author describes such details as the patterns traced by the mowing machine or the aroma of the steamy barn during milking, all as seen through the eyes of a young boy. The wonder and beauty of the natural world become part of the story.

Tawny is written with skill and love. Don't let the "juvenile" label prevent your reading it. You'll enjoy it even if you are over 14.

TAWNYBy Chas. Corner '74Macmillan, 1978. 152 pp. $7.95

Phoebe Stebbins is responsible for children'sbooks at the Dartmouth Bookstore.