Rascal (book)

The story is also a personal chronicle of the era of change between the (nearly) untouched forest wilderness and agriculture; between the days of the pioneers and the rise of towns; and between horse-drawn transportation and automobiles, among other transitions.

The author recounts through the eyes of himself as a boy his observations during expeditions in and around his hometown, contrasted with his father's reminiscences of the time "when Wisconsin was still half wilderness when panthers sometimes looked in through the windows, and the whippoorwills called all night long",[1] provide a glimpse of the past, as the original subtitle suggests.

His sister Theo cannot understand Sterling's building of a canoe in the living room and is "startled nearly out of her wits" when Rascal, who had been lying on and blending into Uncle Justus' Amazonian jaguar rug, stands up.

Later in the book, Rascal joins him in a pie-eating contest, and they win but are partially disqualified, although his friend, Oscar Sunderland, takes first prize because of it.

Sterling travels for hours in the newly completed canoe to release Rascal in the woods at the far side of nearby Lake Koshkonong.

The film also featured the voice of Walter Pidgeon as the reminiscing grown Sterling North, Steve Forrest as his father Willard, and Pamela Toll as his sister Theo.

50,000 people toured the display, timed to correspond to Sterling's 100th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the anime, Araiguma Rasukaru, based on the book.