Nuts About Squirrels: The Rodents That Conquered Popular Culture

Nuts About Squirrels is the first book to provide a comprehensive look at how the bushy-tailed creatures have found their way into the mass media, as well as in mythology and folklore of the past. Squirrels are ubiquitous media marvels and Corrigan covers their treatment in books, newspapers, television, movies, public relations, advertising, video games and more. Nuts About Squirrels is a fun read, whether you love or loathe these furry characters that inhabit our backyards, city parks, forests, purple mountains and fruited plains. They are all here: Nutkin and Timmy Tiptoes from the classic books of Beatrix Potter; Bullwinkle Moose's friend Rocky and the hapless Secret Squirrel from the television age; Conker and Squirrel Girl from the new age of video games. Nuts About Squirrels is not all fun and games, however, as the book draws on the insights of Marshall McLuhan, the media scholar who told us that the medium is the message - and squirrels do seem to fare better in the cool medium of television as compared to their depictions in the hot medium of newspapers. Nuts About Squirrels is a study that also shows how squirrel legends and folklore from centuries ago find new life and novel adaptations for movies, video games and the other new media of today.