In the illustrations, the bucolic setting is transformed into a mental landscape dominated by a towering wall that stretches off into the distance to leave squirrel and tree alone in stark isolation. Having first contemplated the prospect of being challenged for ownership and then the notion that there just might be enough shade and pine cones to share (“But we all know where that kind of thinking leads”), the squirrel proceeds to envision ways to reinforce its property rights…maybe by building a wall (nothing topical to see here, oh no). In what is not so much a story as an open-ended discussion starter, a solitary squirrel stakes a claim-“It’s MY tree and these are MY pinecones”-and then whirls off on a round of imaginary what-ifs. A meditation on the perils of possessiveness.
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