The Kar-Karrs of Pear-Flower

In Pear-Flower, at the top of a large poplar tree, lived a family of crows. Every day, except Sundays and holidays, Mrs. Kar-Karr laid an egg — pale green with black speckles. And the next day, returning from the store,... she found the nest empty. This went on for many days until one day Mrs. Kar-Karr caught a Rattlesnake at her home — with an egg in its mouth. The poor crow barely waited for her husband to come home from work and demanded that he kill the villainess himself. But Mr. Kar-Karr did not do that, instead going for advice to his friend — the Wise Owl. And he suggested a way to teach the thief a lesson once and for all.

English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), author of the famous dystopia "Brave New World" (1932), wrote his only children's story during the Christmas holidays of 1944. He composed it for his five-year-old niece Olivia Holleville. It mentions the girl herself, her brother Siggy, and their neighbors — the Jost family. The action takes place on a farm in the town of Perblossom (Pear-Flower), where Olivia's family lived. The writer and his wife Maria lived nearby, in Llano, and Maria's sister's children often visited them. During a fire in Huxley's house, the manuscript was destroyed, but fortunately, the Josts had a second copy. The tale was published in 1967, after the author's death, and since then the story of the pair of black crows, the rattlesnake, and the wise owl has delighted new generations of readers aged 4 to 6 years.