Owl Moon is based on an activity that could be a true story, but it is fictional because the characters are created by the author.
If you are excited about owls and want to learn a little more about their natural history, I received a non-fiction book for Christmas that I recommend. Some have mentioned that it is a children’s book, but I believe it is geared more for adults. The format looks much like a picture book and has illustrations that would appeal to a child. This format may have misled some to think it is a children’s book.
The book Twelve Owls, by Laura Erickson, has a Minnesota
She has also published a book called Sharing the Wonders of Birds With Kids. Both these books are published by the University of Minnesota Press
I also recommend a children’s bird book series by Adele Porter, published by Adventure Publications. My copy, of course, is Wild About Minnesota Birds: A Youth’s Guide to the Birds of Minnesota Michigan , Wisconsin
Birds are often common in every habitat no matter where you look and are the perfect subject to use to get kids excited about nature and caring about the environment. This is why I’m happy to pass along some good reads to spark interest in birds and the outdoors.
Do you have any favorite bird books? My first field guide was North American Birds Golden Guide.
What was your very first bird book?
New! Morgan Academy Discussion Blog on connecting children to nature through literature.
Don't Forget to Check Out America's Wild Read !
Don't Forget to Check Out America's Wild Read !
OWL MOON: “Owling”- Not Just a Childhood Experience – Perspective by Deanne Endrizzi
I didn’t have parents that were much into nature, so my interest was sparked through my own investigations. It would have been awesome to have a parent, relative or friend like Pa in the book Owl Moon that would take me out to look for owls at night.
My first experience with “owling” was in my late high school and young adult years. One of my first dates with my husband was owling on Valentine’s night. Because of this evening, owling holds a special place in my heart and that is why I accepted the invitation to moderate.
Owl Moon, the 1988 Caldecott winner, is considered a “quiet” book and unless you are an established author, it is hard to get these types of books published. The vivid descriptions of the night hike coupled with John Schoenherr artwork really make the story come alive. The hair stands up on the back of my neck having experienced this activity myself.
The description of the train whistle and the dogs barking reminds me of the cold, snowy nights at my great grandma’s house back in the 70s. It is interesting how some stories bring back childhood memories.
I wonder if this story is based on the author's personal experience. It seems she must have had some familiarity of hiking at night in the winter to weave together such a realistic tale.
Owl Moon’s author, Jane Yolen, is a prolific writer with over 300 books published and she started writing in 1963. She’s not what you would call a nature writer, but she has several other nature-related books of poetry with photos by Stan Stemple. The most recent are: An Egret’s Day (2009), A Mirror to Nature (2009) and Fine Feathered Friends (2004).
Have you ever been owling? If you found owls on a night hike, what species did you see/hear? What kind of memories does this book stir up for you?
Owl photgraphed by Deanne
New! Morgan Academy Discussion Blog on connecting children to nature through literature.
Don't Forget to Check Out America's Wild Read !
Don't Forget to Check Out America's Wild Read !
Hello friends of the Connecting to Children to Nature through American Literature blog. As you have noticed we are taking a break this holiday season and will be returning with new moderators in January 2012 and look forward to new conversations in the new year. At this time we invite you to please return to some of the older postings to deepen those discussions. We have only touched upon some of the selections in the exhibit so stay tuned.
Happy Holidays !!!
Happy Holidays !!!
Celebrating Nature Through the Eyes of Byrd Baylor - by Kathy Parra
First I want to express it is an honor to share with Connecting Children to Nature Through American Literature 1890-Today. Like many of you, there are books that touch the spirit-soul so deeply that you sit back on the porch swing, sipping that last bit of tea at the bottom of your cup, then as you raise your eyes you gaze to that of natures scene in your own backyard, the awe-beauty and wonderment it beholds as your inner essence is forever changed and has now taken a photographic snapshot as if you are the photographer, photographing an image now imprinted in your mind’s eye forever!
This is how I describe the Author/Naturalist Byrd Baylor in her book I’M IN CHARGE OF CELEBRATIONS.
The opening line of this book is sometimes people ask me, “Aren’t you lonely out there with just desert around you?” (Byrd lives in Arivaca, Arizona, population 909 as of 2000 and where much of nature is untouched in its purest form) Byrd goes on to share that each day is a celebration as she is with-within nature saying, “How could I be lonely? I’m in charge of celebrations.” She shares that each day she is with nature is a celebration and that she writes many of them down, oh but she is choosy she explains, last year I gave myself one hundred and eight celebrations….. besides the ones they close school for. And you can tell what’s worth a celebration because your heart will POUND and you’ll feel like you’re standing on top of a mountain and you’ll catch your breath like you were breathing some kind of new air. In the book she shares just a few of the wondrous celebrations she has wrote down.
Byrd Baylor love for nature is in the purest form in my opinion; she is one with the natural world as she speaks of seeing a triple rainbow while a rabbit watched with her, August ninth is Rainbow Celebration Day. And Coyote eye glances to one another, I saw her eyes and she saw mine. That look held us together. Because of that, I never will be the same again. So on September twenty-eighth I celebrate Coyote Day! Byrd celebrates with horned toads and ravens and lizards and quail…. So to those who ask “aren’t you lonely out there with just the desert around?” to that she says I have to laugh out-loud.
So next time we are in nature let us all bring a little Byrd Baylor to our spirit and be in charge of our own celebrations through the intrinsic splendor of natures gift to us!
Byrd Baylor Selections:
http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/guesswho.html
New! Morgan Academy Discussion Blog on connecting children to nature through literature.
Don't Forget to Check Out America's Wild Read !
A Guest Book from Overseas - The Little Prince and Our First Explorations !
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”
The first time I read The Little Prince, years ago, I finished it and said ‘what was THAT about,’ noted that I had read it, and put it away. The second time I read the book, about 5 years ago, I said ‘what was THAT about’ and immediately began reading it again. Since that time, I have read it several more times. I’m still not sure what it is actually ‘about,’ but it is an amazing book.
The story is narrated by a pilot who has crash landed his airplane in the desert. He meets a small person that he names ‘the little prince’ who wants the narrator to draw a sheep. The little prince came from another world (Asteroid B-612) which is quite small. Through the narration, we learn that there are 3 volcanoes (2 active), 1 flower that is being nurtured by the little prince, and the asteroid is in danger of being overrun by baobab trees. There are also 44 sunsets every day!
The little prince runs away from the flower and leaves his planet with the help of a flock of birds. He visits other asteroids where he finds a king who rules over mostly nothing, a conceited man who needs to be admired, a tippler (drunk) who is ashamed, a businessman who is consumed with counting his possessions, a lamplighter on a tiny asteroid who is continually lighting and then putting out his lamp and a geographer who writes about the subject, but never explores.
Finally the little prince comes to earth where he meets a snake, a vain flower, a fox, and the narrator. The rest of the book involves the little prince’s interaction with these and culminates with the snake biting the little prince so that he can return home.
Whether you have never read the book and are going by my description or have read the book and are still confused, it doesn’t matter! As the little prince says, “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves.” Certainly with nature, this is true. How much more exciting is nature when we see it through the eyes of first exploration! And “first exploration” can come every day if we are exploring with a child. Just recently, leading a nature hike in pouring rain, I was reminded that adults are aware of how wet they are getting and children are aware of how much more wet they can get!
Somewhere along the way of growing up, adults lose a sense of discovery of nature and replace it with fear. The narrator of the story says, early in the book, “…I would never talk to that person [adult] about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level.” Adults need children as companions in order to explore nature or we risk staying at a low level of discovery and adventure. Even adults who have made nature study a life-long career, like the renowned biologist E.O. Wilson, approach nature with the soul of a child even as they are collecting research for academic tomes. Otherwise, they would collect only facts (as the businessman did) and never interpret those facts to give others a glimpse into the wonder of nature’s patterns and rhythms.
A study of nature always begins with the words ‘look’ and proceeds from there. It is the observation that leads to the questioning of what is happening that leads to more observations that reveal answers to the original questions. On a hike, I listened with amusement to two 2nd grade boys who were explaining to me why they knew about everything in the woods. And to my chagrin, I now realize I was listening with half an ear because I knew they didn’t know everything. Perhaps I should have kept “listening with my eyes” more closely to see what they could have helped me discover.
“The Little Prince” is such a multi-layered book, that it may take you time to digest things. To make it easier, think about how children have helped you discover nature and share your thoughts here. “The little prince, who asked me so many questions, never seemed to hear the ones I asked him. It was from words dropped by chance that, little by little, everything was revealed to me.”
Hatchet : The story of a city kid's survival out in the wild - By Ellen Murphy
Hatchet is one of those adventure books that you either love or hate. There’s much in it that can be considered implausible (see the final note), but there is also plenty that keeps you from putting the book down until the last page is turned. For adults, it’s an easy read; for early teens, it is an adventure story that is capable of pulling the reader into the story and challenging them to think how they would stack up in the same situation.
The story is pretty basic: Brian’s parents have split up and he is sent by his mother to spend time with his father in northern Canada, on a small airplane. The pilot suffers a heart attack, the plane goes off course and eventually crashes into a lake. The pilot dies, but Brian survives the crash landing and figures out a way to survive in the wilderness. After the initial shock of the crash wears off and Brian realizes he has to use his brain and his one limited resource (his hatchet), he learns little by little how to survive from one day to the next. For a city-kid without survival training, he does an amazing job!
After 54 days, he is rescued, and returns home a changed person: more thoughtful, slower to speak, and more appreciative of modern amenities.
The book is popular with boys and girls, and is especially important because there is a need for good “teen guy” fiction if boys are expected to develop any love of reading. I suspect its popularity comes from the likable character as well as a believable characterization of an average teen boy. Brian’s thoughts and actions after the crash are not heroic, but a great example of inner strength overshadowing panic—inner strength that Brian did not know he possessed. In a culture where parents are often accused of being too involved in their children’s lives and over-concerned with keeping them safe and risk-free, it’s refreshing for teens to relate to a character that demonstrate what many older adults have learned with age—you can do a lot more than you ever thought if you have to!
Comparisons of Hatchet with other books is probably inevitable. My Side of the Mountain has similar survival themes, but there are glaring differences between Brian and Sam. Brian is confronted with the wilderness and a need to survive without any preparation while Sam approaches the wilderness as a challenge he feels he is well prepared for. Brian is an unlikely invader and Sam is a willing participant. Other books that have a similar adventure feel are Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn, both of which have a more difficult reading level, but make use of the wilderness as a partial backdrop. Does anyone even read them anymore? If not, it’s a shame as they are both exciting adventure books, although of a different time and place.
Most often, the themes that are explored in Hatchet are those of emotions and survival, but the wilderness backdrop can present an entirely different focus. There are 12 different plants, 33 animals (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, insects, and aquatic animals), and 13 natural phenomenon mentioned in the book. It seems a shame that we overlook ways that that book can be used to excite students about nature and the diversity waiting just off the paved road. If we would read Hatchet with an eye for what it can reveal about the natural world rather than for the emotional angst of teens, we might discover an entirely different way to connect children with nature. I’d like to see this discussion go in that direction.
Two final thoughts— although there are a number of sequels to Hatchet, one of which is actually an alternative ending in which Brian must survive a northern Canadian winter, there is a certain curiosity in me that wonders how the book might have ended differently. What if Brian had been “beaten” by the wilderness or even not survived? That plot would be much darker, and perhaps not suitable for its intended audience, but might encourage more discussion about the place of wilderness in our inner fears. (If Brian had not survived, how would he have met his demise and when/if/how would he have been recovered.
Secondly, throughout the book, there are scenarios that seem real and exciting and some that are just plausible, but there are also a couple of things that just don’t work. The biggest error is that the plane is described as a small, 2-passenger Cessna 406. The Cessna 406 which is a big, twin engine plane. It would more likely have been a Cessna 120 or 140 and, while that is not really important, it is annoying to me. The lake is BIG—big enough so that a crashed plane did not leak enough gas and oil (much less the pilot’s decomposing body) to kill many fish or pollute the water. The plane’s emergency transmitter doesn’t go off on impact as it is designed to do, (which certainly happens), but miraculously begins to work after being in water for 2 months. Technically, that’s annoying, but it’s necessary for the plot to work.
Compare these books to Hatchet
New! Morgan Academy Discussion Blog on connecting children to nature through literature.
Don't Forget to Check Out America's Wild Read ! Featured book is The Thunder Tree
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