"Us, and our donkey"

In *Us, and our donkey*, Amy Le Feuvre fashions a lively domestic tale in which travel, family intimacy, and gentle moral reflection are woven into a narrative accessible to younger readers yet recognizably Victorian in sensibility. The donkey of the title is more than a comic accompaniment: it becomes a focal point through which affection, inconvenience, discipline, and endurance are explored. Le Feuvre's prose is clear, warm, and lightly didactic, characteristic of late nineteenth-century evangelical children's literature, where everyday incidents are shaped into occasions for spiritual and ethical insight without losing their narrative charm. Amy Le Feuvre (1861–1929) was a prolific English writer of religiously inflected fiction for children, deeply formed by evangelical Christianity and by a culture that regarded storytelling as a vehicle for moral education. Much of her work reflects her concern with obedience, faith, and the formation of character in ordinary life. That background helps explain the book's interest in small domestic adventures and in the testing of temper, patience, and kindness through seemingly simple circumstances. This book is especially recommended to readers interested in Victorian children's fiction, animal-centered storytelling, and the history of moral literature. It rewards modern audiences not only as an engaging family narrative, but also as a revealing example of how affection, humor, and religious purpose could coexist in children's books of its period.