While contemplating the world over a bowl of cold cereal, as so many of us do, Graham Taylor noticed a familiar squirrel outside of his window.
Longing for love and companionship, he thought about how nice it would be if the squirrel could be his friend. “I like it when I dream of you squirrel, or a peanut butter sandwich,” he said.
He began to take notes, jotting down a couple of lines here and there about his feelings, when his friend Graham Roumieu began to do illustrations for them. It was then that a really super book called A Really Super Book About Squirrels came into being.
Considering the great chasm between humans and squirrels, Taylor and Graham Roumieu have put together a striking account of a human/ squirrel relationship, even if it was largely a part of the human’s imagination. “Sometimes I see you sitting on the fence eating and I think you would make a good friend,” writes Taylor, about his openness for friendship.
I doubt there have been any academic seminars conducted at institutions of higher learning about the great chasm between the world of the human and the world of the squirrel. Perhaps there have been some that have taken place at squirrel conventions. If I am mistaken, and those conventions don’t currently exist, I strongly urge that they do, perhaps here at ETSU where the fuzzy squirrel population has reached record numbers.
Seeing that his squirrel neighbor has no qualms about visiting his home on an almost daily basis, Taylor suggests that they become friends and tries to understand more deeply the existence of his furry friend. “Why do you bury your food in the ground? Wouldn’t it get dirty? … I keep my food in the cupboard.”
A staunch champion of the tongue-in-cheek myself, this book grabbed me by my squirrel-hating/loving heart and took me for a ride of contemplation, consideration for others (even if they are fuzzy) and self-discovery.
The book’s protagonist wonders about things that we all wonder about, like the way that squirrels cross the street and while running to the middle, stop as if they’ve forgotten something.
In this instance of spotting squirrel activity, Taylor has only the furry animal’s safety in mind. “Just run I think, a car is coming,” the author concludes, treasuring the road-crossing techniques that he was taught as a human. “This whole procedure strikes me as strange. I was taught to look both ways before I cross a street,” he says.
Their beautiful relationship gets into trouble when Taylor fails to be amused by Jimmy’s squirrely games and says, “Fun is fun – but I’ve had enough. I’m leaving. Next time, don’t play your squirrel games.”
Perhaps Jimmy didn’t realize how exhausting chasing a squirrel around a tree can be for a middle-aged male.
In a gesture of reconciliation, Taylor brings a bag of nuts out onto the deck to share, but Jimmy doesn’t show. The reality of the situation is that Taylor and the squirrel lead two very different lives, making it difficult to build a relationship.
The author does; however, become a better person while striving to learn more about a species different from himself. See how rewarding acceptance can be?
Even I, in my day-to-day jaunts across campus, strive to understand the world of the squirrel. All of the nut gathering, digging, jumping in the air, flirting with other squirrels and climbing trees to have squirrel members-only parties seems pretty fun, but in all of my adventures, I don’t ever think that my wish to become a squirrel for a day will ever come true.
So, I’m just stuck picking fights with crummy high-school squirrels and writing about them for this crummy newspaper. And by crummy, I mean wonderful.
This book relays a lesson to humans everywhere that not only is it beautiful when a man wants to get to know a squirrel better, but similarly, it is beautiful when humans want to get to know other humans better. Every man, woman and child is just a squirrel trying to get a nut, so getting to know furry rodent-like creatures is metaphorically like getting to know humans.
Many humans don’t know their neighbors, and other humans don’t want the nuts that their friendly neighbors throw at them. “Oh squirrel, we live so close, yet we cannot be friends…I think you would make a good friend. When I try to give you a nut, you run away.”
Accept the nut, and make a new friend in your neighbor. I promise, the experience will prove to be a really super good time.

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