Silver Squirrel
By Daniel Ritchie

In the tradition of WATERSHIP DOWN, SILVER SQUIRREL explores the interpersonal and interspecies dynamics of an animal culture, in this case squirrels. Silver Squirrel isn’t just a King Arthur/Harry Potter in fur. He’s a free spirit with a flute torn between duty to community and his own yearnings to be friends with birds and, even more shockingly, females. In a BRAVE NEW WORLD-esque squirrel society, male squirrels, even leaders such as Timothy Brushtail are only puppets for the females, who conduct all the real business of the colony. Beverly Brown makes Hillary Clinton look like an amateur when it comes to politics and being a political spouse. However, Chelsea, er, Sandy Brown, Beverly’s daughter, feels as ambivalent as Silver about the natural order, although she isn’t fond of the birds that have destroyed their squirrel colony…especially the fearsome predator known as The Hawk. Every squirrel knows that you can’t trust birds, the Hawk in particular.

Silver Squirrel risks ostracism by befriending two crows and sheltering an injured one named Morning, whom Sandy reluctantly helps. Sandy is drawn to Silver, his gentle ways and his music, but when her own mother leaves her to fend for herself in favor of a new litter of squirrel kits, Sandy realizes she doesn’t have many role models for a lasting relationship.

Meanwhile, Jacob, Sandy’s uncle, tries to maneuver Silver into a destiny a la Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda grooming Luke Skywalker, or more appropriately, Obi-Win and Qui-Gon Jinn trying to keep Anakin Skywalker from following the dark impulses that birth…well, we won’t spoil “Star Wars: Episode III.” At least Silver doesn’t say “I have a bad feeling about this.” Like Anakin marrying Senator Padme Amidala, Silver falls in love with a woman that, by the rules of his society, should never be his to cherish. But when you befriend birds, forbidden love is the next step. Where will the strivings of one squirrel lead? Ritchie’s entertaining, character-driven, philosophical adventure novel offers no easy answers, just a richly layered story and allegory intended to be, and would have been, a great series a la “Redwall.”