RACCOONS ARE FOR LOVING
By
Why pick on raccoons? almost any wild animal would do. On her way to school Josie stops at Grannie's house, asks her to tell again about living in South Carolina, especially about the raccoon that whispered: ""You got any loving for me?"" Once in school Josie thinks country, sees country, hears country. . . and it's the very day the class is going to the country, to a large white house where the family keeps a pet rabbit and snake, where a squirrel chatters, where Josie hears a sniffling sound and turns around ""to see an animal with shiny eyes that had a black band across them."" Hesitantly, she picks up the raccoon and snuggles him; that night she tells Grannie what he whispered. Josie's brown-skinned, her grandmother beats hominy batter, and the school's inner-city--but the good intentions are ill-served by a rambling, disjointed story with only one place to go and ""rabbits danc(ing) in goldenrod"" on the way.