Annie and the Old One

Originally published in 1971, Annie and the Old One is the American children’s fictional tale written by Miska Miles (a pseudonym of author Patricia Miles Martin) and illustrated by Peter Parnall. Set on a Navajo mesa during autumn, the story follows Annie, a young Native American girl who is told her grandmother will pass away as soon as grandmother finishes weaving her rug. Determined to prevent the completion of the rug, Annie goes to great lengths to distract her family away from weaving. Annie misbehaves at school, releases a flock of sheep so her parents will have to chase them around, and even begins ripping the rug apart, one strand at a time. Thematically, the book touches on accepting death, dealing with grief, and learning how to accept difficult family changes. Annie and the Old One won the 1972 Newbery Medal Honor Book Award.

Narrated in the omniscient third-person perspective, the story begins with a description of Annie’s “Navajo world.” Every morning, young Annie helps herd the sheep through the gate on her family farm and carry pails of water to the cornfield. In the evenings, Annie listens to her old grandmother tell stories of the past. Sometimes Annie feels like her grandmother is the same age as her, “a girl who had seen no more than nine or ten harvestings.” Both laugh when a mouse skitters along the floor of their hogan, or when bread is accidentally burned. After putting a blanket over her grandmother’s knees, Annie is told she must learn how to weave. Annie walks past her father making a silver necklace and into a big room where her mother sits weaving. Annie watches her mother weave and thinks about all the stories of hardship her grandmother told her. Annie’s mother asks if she is ready to weave, but Annie shakes her head and continues to watch her mother. Soon, Annie leaves and begins gathering firewood with her grandmother.

Following dinner, Annie’s grandmother calls a family meeting. Grandmother tells her family that she will pass away as soon as she completes the rug she is weaving. Annie watches her mother’s eyes well up with tears. Grandmother tells each family member to choose one gift to have. When asked what she wants, Annie looks at grandmother’s weaving stick sitting against the wall. “My granddaughter shall have my weaving stick,” grandmother says. Annie’s mother chooses the old rug grandmother weaved, while Annie’s father chooses a silver and turquoise belt wrapped around grandmother’s waist. Saddened, Annie asks her mother how she knows grandmother will go to Mother Earth when passing. Mother replies that grandmother has always been in harmony with nature. In the following days, grandmother goes about her business as normal. She continues to cook, gather firewood, and watch the sheep with Annie when school is out. Annie asks her mother why she weaves, and mother explains that she trades her rugs for things the family needs. With grandmother’s red rug hung halfway on the loom, Annie knows she must stop the rug from being completed or else grandmother will die.



The next day, Annie plans to distract Grandmother from weaving by misbehaving at school. Annie takes one of her gym teacher’s shoes, hides it in her dress, and drops it in a trashcan. Annie sneaks out of the jogging line and returns to her classroom desk. The teacher asks the remaining girls where her missing shoe went, but nobody answers. A male teacher enters the classroom with the missing shoe and touches Annie’s shoulder, saying, “I saw someone playing tricks.” After school, Annie timidly asks her teacher if she would like her mother and father to visit the next day for a talk. The teacher declines, saying everything is alright now that she has the shoe. Annie takes the bus home and finds the rug even bigger than before.

In the morning, Annie visits the pen where the sheep sleep. She shakes one awake, which makes the entire herd wake up. When the lead goat heads toward the open gate, Annie curls her finger through the bell on the goat’s collar, muffling any sounds of escape. She lets all of the sheep free. Annie races back home, slipping under her blanket before anyone can notice she was missing. Annie knows her mother and father will go looking for the sheep, which will distract them from weaving the rug. Later in the morning, Annie hears her grandmother call out for the missing sheep. After spotting them graze near the mesa, grandmother has Annie herd the sheep back to the pen. At school that day, Annie sadly ignores her teacher when asked a question, lost in thought about what to do with the rug. That night, Annie sneaks outside to peer at the loom. One by one, Annie begins pulling strands of yarn from the rug and laying them across her knee until the entire row is gone. Once the rug is back to the height of Annie’s waist, she sneaks back into bed with the strands of yarn and crumples them into a ball.

The next night, Annie removes another day’s weaving. Her mother is puzzled when seeing the rug. On the third night, Grandmother places a hand on Annie’s shoulder and tells her to go to sleep. Annie wants to confess to being bad, but stumbles back to bed and begins to cry. The next morning, Annie follows grandmother into the cornfield. As they sit and stare out over the mesa, grandmother tells Annie that she cannot hold back time, no matter how hard she tries. Grandmother explains the laws of nature and how, even in death, she will always remain one with the Earth. When they return home, Annie picks up the weaving stick and declares that she is ready to weave. “I will use the stick my grandmother has given me,” says Annie as she begins to work on the loom. In the end, Annie accepts her grandmother’s fate.