Time for some more animal adventures.
Raccoon on His Own by Jim Arnosky.
The multitude of shades of green in these double pages spreads evokes the humid swamp background to this tale. Sentences are short. Text is simple. Effect is lyrical. Arnosky opens with:
“In the dark swamp, a new day dawned like a sleepy eye, opening slowly.”
Hah, knew it, you’re suckered in aren’t you? With cranes and dragonflies and snakes as company a family or raccoons sets off to search food. Baby raccoon, less interested in food than in exploration, finds himself cast afloat, alone in a canoe headed downstream.
This first journey alone is fraught with danger, fear, discovery and adventure. To reassure very young readers, Arnosky has kept raccoon’s family melted into the background of each illustration as they accompany him from the river bank. The boat eventually collides with the bank and he is reunited with his mother and siblings.
Young readers will be on the edge of the seats following this trajectory and solution.
Little Beaver and the Echo by Amy MacDonald, illustrated by Sarah Fox-Davies
This is another charming, watery tale, that will appeal to narrator and audience alike.
Little beaver lives all alone by the edge of a pond. He is sad and lonely and he begins to cry, getting louder until he realizes he can hear someone else crying on the other side of the pond. So what do you do? Of course, you find yourself a boat and set out to find this lonely creature, juts like you. Now I will let you imagine who he meets on this journey, but his final encounter, with a wise old beaver, helps him understand Echo better. For you see, when you are sad, so is Echo, and when you are happy, Echo is happy too.
Beavers, ducks and otters are very realistically illustrated in this book, but with just enough facial expression, to give each a unique character. Children will cheer a little beavers new friends and maybe understand more about echoes in the process.
Felina’s New Home a Florida Panther Story by Loran Wlordarski, illustrated by Lew Clayton.
I am honestly not sure if this one counts as fiction or non-fiction, or the new term I have come across recently, literary non-fiction. Feel free to give me your opinion. As Felina grows, her forest home around her shrinks. The trees under which she sleeps and in which her friends the red-cockaded woodpeckers hang out, start to disappear. Concrete roads now block her dirt paths, hindering her passage and those of her her friends, the gopher and tortoise. She sets out for a safer place to live but she cuts her paw on the edge of a sharp soda can, learning that people’s trash can harm her. She finally finds some deer to hunt, but as her friend the Florida manatee says, this is bad news, as they are also fed by the humans. Can Felina find a safe home and what of her friends?
Clearly this is a book aimed more at the schools and library market, with authentic illustrations of these seven threatened animals and the effects of our deforestation. The story leaves the reader also with a strong message of preservation programs.
There are four detailed pages of facts and ideas about the animals at the end of the story, plus follow up activities for kids. Other cross-curricular teaching activities, interactive quizzes, and more are available online here.
I know most of you will have already signed up for the Picture Book Idea Month, if not here’s the link.
# 96-98 in the There’s a Book Read to Me Picture Book Challenge.
In my 20's, with only my guitar and a rucksack, I wandered the continents, immersing myself in the lives of some wonderful people, projects and stories, which changed the way I view my responsibility to others and this earth. Right now I'm a European transplant in the US who writes books for children and young adults. Stories can help us not only navigate our world but can connect us to others, and allow us to inspire and help each other. I believe that equity and empathy should be at the core of our all actions, words, and stories.
I am also a school librarian and I get a kick out of book-matchmaking! And I use the pronouns she/her.
How did you know that beavers and raccoons are two of my favorite animals!
You write such amazing reviews. I hope you keep it going even after you reach 100.
Thank you, Julie. Actually my target for the year is 120, so I have a ways to go to make it. It was the push I needed to get me going as a new writer and blogger earlier in the year and has been an excellent incentive to keep me buried in my genre!
The raccoon story sounds charming with an element of suspense for kids. (Not a raccoon fan — they picked all of my garden tomatoes, so I gave up.) The beaver story is sad. I’m not sure about the panther story — it sounds like literary nonfiction. But, I picked up a book that is fiction, but has two pages of historical information in the end. Oh, black panther has been spotted in our area and wildlife officials have been tracking it — may be another case of someone letting one loose. Hope they find it.
The beaver story has a happy ending, Pat, but the beginning is really sad to see him so alone in front of this small lake surrounded by hills. Felina is informative, but I would have made more of a story from it, I think. I hope they find your panther – black panthers are not native to Ohio, are they?
No, they are not. Bobcats and wolved are about all. I enjoyed your selection of animals stories. My granddaughter has suddenly become interested in animals.
So maybe one or two animal books on her Christmas list? How old is she?
I loved the little beaver story, and he looks so cute. I also love cats and as a kid I loved BIG cats especially drawing them. I would have loved sitting flicking through, and reading “Felina’s new home..” Lovely reviews thankyou Joanna.
Thanks, Diane. I do think kids with a real interest in animals will love Felina. There is interesting info on all Felina’s Florida friends too.
Little Beaver and the Echo has long been a favorite on our house! Your reveiws are so well written that the other two sound fantastic also. I have a weak spot for any animal story – especially endangered animals – so these are right up my alley!
Susanna, thrilled to know you have a weak spot for books about endangered animals, as you will find many such reviews here.
Three more wonderful-sounding books! From your review, Felina sounds like literary non-fiction to me. I’d like to get Emma’s take on it.
How am I supposed to find time to read all the wonderful books you and Pat and others lay before me, and do my own research reading as well? (What a lament — it’s a glorious situation to be in!)
My brain is already gearing up for PiBoIdMo… I keep telling it “Hold that idea until November, brain!”
Beth, I am hoping that I am going to have massively inspirational days at the weekends when I actually have time to think! I plan on jotting everything down longhand so I will keep a journal with me at all times.