Subtitled "A Memoir of a Better Era", North's book is about being young and having a pet raccoon.
Rascal chronicles young Sterling's loving yet distant relationship with his father, dreamer David Willard North, and the aching loss represented by the death of Sterling's mother, Elizabeth Nelson North. The book also touches on young Sterling's concerns for his older brother Herschel, off fighting in
World War I in Europe. The boy reconnects with society through the unlikely intervention of his pet
raccoon, a "ringtailed wonder" charmer. The book begins with the capture of the baby raccoon and follows his growth to a yearling. 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", provide a glimpse of the past, as the original subtitle suggests. The book has humorous moments. 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. Rascal also enjoyed riding in his bicycle's basket and helped him sell magazines The book also has serious moments. The author's brother, Herschel, is serving in the military during World War I, and Sterling longs for a word from him. Rascal is confined after he bites Slammy Stillman for snapping him with a rubber band. Later, Sterling catches a mild case of the
Spanish flu during the epidemic. The book states his Aunt Lillie, caring for him during his sickness, said Sterling's mother had wanted him to be a writer, which he achieved. Eventually, the problems with Rascal's raids into fields and henhouses become too much; the neighbors' irritation with the boy's pet can no longer be ignored, and Rascal runs the constant peril of being shot. Also, Rascal has become a young adult and, as such, is getting attention from jealous male and interested female raccoons. Sterling travels for hours in the newly completed canoe to release Rascal in the woods at the far side of nearby Lake Koshkonong. One of his biggest regrets is that his brother Herschel won't be back in time to see his pet. The author's sister, poet and art historian
Jessica Nelson North, wasn't particularly pleased with how her brother portrayed her family in
Rascal (but was proud of her brother's achievement, regardless). ==Awards==