Publisher's Synopsis
This is the PARCHMENT edition. View the art as it appeared when it was discovered. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level is 4.9 suitable for 10 to adult. This edition is the full length 33,000 word edition. An abbreviated edition for 8-12 is available with 7500 words. Another edition for 8-10 readers contains 3600 words. As with many illustrated classic stories, it is a story with unique characters and deals with hope, determination, compassion, and much more. In the opening preface, Robert Landsbury discovers the diary in a shed on a newly purchased estate in River Falls, Ohio and passes it along to his associates. The diary is faithfully preserved for today's reader. In it, the reader will discover that a ten-year-old mute girl, Tammy Wurtherington residing in the Wixby estate is the author. She loves to make dolls in a shed out in back of the house. She lives with Lord Wixby and Aunt May in a lavish estate at the edge of town. Aunt May teaches her to use a sewing machine and gives her a small one suited to size as a birthday gift. One day while constructing a toy soldier for her brother, Alfred the Mouse appears and is impressed with her ability to make doll outfits and reluctantly invites her to follow him to Kira if she will bring along the sewing machine.Tammy keeps a diary of her exploits in Kira which is ruled with an iron-hand by a pair of sorceresses, Catherine and Lucinda. Tammy and Alfred find their way through a fantasy underground transportation system that ends up with the pair mistakenly ending up in a wicker-basket in the middle of the ocean. Tammy finds her voice for the first time and Alfred explains that it is a "talking spell that allows virtually everyone to talk including the pesky (giant) flowers."From this point you will discover many wonderful characters like Zeke, the Flying Opossum, and Cedric the Mongoose, who accompany Tammy on her journey to Capira to present a petition to return the kingdom to its former glory. You will meet the pirate, Captain Flynn, who loves to have his guests walk the plank and the loveable Kakuna villagers who's harvest is soon to be confiscated by the royal soldiers. But please beware of the Oxboar forest, where the evil Hoarggs reside otherwise you may end up in a stew-pot. Tammy has an adventure in which she learns to love all the strange living creatures she encounters in a magical land. Before she departs, all of Kira will fall in love with The Little Doll Girl who changed them forever and became a legend.
