Andrew Henry's Meadow

Front jacket cover for the first edition of Andrew Henry's Meadow (1965), written and illustrated by Doris Burn.

Burn’s first published work, Andrew Henry’s Meadow, was issued by Coward-McCann in 1965, and inspired by her oldest son, Mark. Like Mark, the book’s main character, Andrew Henry Thatcher, “liked to build things”, and could always find “plenty of things to do”. When his indoor inventions are unappreciated by parents and siblings, Andrew Henry gathers his tools and sets off in search of the meadow where he can build his own house. The meadow attracts several more children. Andrew Henry builds houses for them, and before long he has crafted a village of wonderful domiciles suited to the imagination and needs of each child.