The Little White Town consists of a description of a small town, clearly based on Kirkcudbright where King lived at the time, in the form of a sort of fairy tale for children. Although King had illustrated and designed many books, she was not accustomed to writing the text by herself and this proved somewhat daunting for her. Her primary idea had been to include with the book cardboard cutouts of buildings in the town which could be constructed and decorated by children — and she worked on this with her daughter Merle, who was eight at the time.
The date of release of the book is significant as simple toys for children were necessitated by the ravages of war. It was also a time, of course, when many children had suffered from the loss of their fathers.
The book was also intended as a tribute to Kirkcudbright, where King had happily settled with her husband and daughter. The ‘Little White Town’, is in some ways idyllic, but not perfect. |
