After writing the "Children in the Bush" series, Ruth Dallas penned a picture book called, "Ragamuffin Scarecrow".
A simple scarecrow falls in love with a lady scarecrow and then they make friends with a horse and a goose. The four of them proceed to have a rather silly adventure making plenty of idiotic decisions (none of them have a brain), but because it's one of those nice folk tales, everything works out in the end and there is a happy ever after.
What is special about this book is the collaboration with New Zealand artist, Els Noordhof. Els created the wood print illustrations for the book out of kauri logs!
The book was handprinted in the Bibliography Room at the University of Otago. Only 750 copies were made and each one was individually numbered. This copy is number 450. Goodness knows where they all are today!
The story is 19 pages long and it's a long story with woodcut pictures every few pages.
I don't think it is Ruth's best work, but it is a collectible item and a nice story.
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