Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear: A Book About Autumn turning to Winter

This is one of my favorite children's books: first and foremost for the gorgeous, rich illustrations. It's a folksy collection of New England chores and harvest tasks that come with the end of autumn and the approach of winter.

Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear by N.M. Bodecker is a long day in the life of a wife and husband (and their playful cat) who prepare for the season... and eventually lose patience with each other!

The mysterious way this book found me

The book, Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear, written by N.M. Bodecker and illustrated by Erik Blegvad, found me in 1998, at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT.

The Northshire is a book lover's delight and has been a fixture in Manchester for decades. The creaky floorboards and cavernous interior make it a really fun place to explore.

On this day, I was there looking at a tall display of children's picture books. Suddenly, a bookseller was at my elbow, clutching a new, hardcover copy of Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear. Without a word, he handed it to me. I glanced at the cover and was immediately charmed by the fall scene, the white-haired woman clad in mittens and a house dress, gripping a shovel in one hand and an ax in the other.

I looked back at the bookseller. He gave me a slow nod with his eyes closed and lips pursed—a dramatic gesture right out of the movies, one meant to convey a moment in time so significant that neither party can fully comprehend the impact.

Then he walked away.

Obviously, I was intrigued. I flipped through the book and immediately fell in love with it. And I bought it.

Before leaving the store I looked for this mysterious, silent bookseller to thank him... but he was nowhere to be found. Did I imagine the whole thing?? Perhaps it was the ghost of the Northshire! Well, whether corporeal or ethereal, he was certainly quite an effective salesman.

Expressive illustrations and New England charm

The illustrations of Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear—that's what got me first. They're full of soft swaths of contrasting subdued colors. Like skies of somber grey—so typical of our late Octobers and early Novembers, and interiors dimmed by drawn curtains and the setting sun.

Bright accents punctuate the cooler, shadowy hues on the pages, like Mary's blue, striped dress, specks of white, swirling snow, a red pillow on the couch, and bright green, shelled peas.

The other element of this book that I love is the collection of old-fashioned New England chores that mark the approach of winter, like picking apples, churning cream to make butter, smoking meats over a wood fire, canning tomatoes and pickles, and putting in the storm windows.

Nowadays, we don't need to do many of these things anymore, but I still feel the pull every fall to do a few of them. We go apple picking, even though local apples are at the store. I stand over the stove to ladle sauces into canning jars, even though it's hot and time-consuming (and I get just as weary as Mary does.) We all look forward to the first fire in the fireplace, even though it only heats the one room.

Perhaps it is an instinctual pull in native New Englanders, lying dormant inside until that first, cool crisp night in September.

And after all that, her husband

The book has a very funny ending once we find out that the voice urging Mary into all this "hurrying" is her lounging, lamenting husband, who rests melted in his rocking chair, cozy and lazy in slippers and cardigan.

Weary, hardworking Mary finally reaches her boiling point, in an ending I won't spoil here!

Recipes straight out of Mary's kitchen

If, after reading this post or the book, you find you are longing to join Mary in some of these seasonal, autumnal rituals and tasks, I have ideas for you: