Nearly two weeks ago, author Susan Vande Griek and illustrator Karen Reczuch took home the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for Loon. This post's title comes from the jury's description of the book, and the cover alone, with its rich, tapestry-like image, declares that this bird
Finally: a story about animals that won't leave you in a puddle, heart-broken, swearing off all other animal stories for life. (I won't name them here, because including them in this context is truly spoilerific, but you know the stories I'm referring to. We probably cried in all the same
The story begins in spring, with the trees greening, but the talk is all of pumpkins. It's too soon to plant pumpkins, Grandpa says, because they need real heat. "And bees. Pumpkins need bees." For many young readers, this will be new -- and startling -- information. "We'll
As one of my Must Reads (it's also in the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up), this classic had the feel of "homework" when I first picked it up, but soon became a pleasure to read. Brian Jacques' Redwall (1986) The Redwall series began when I was more interested
The chapter titles of this work reveal that it's not some kind of textbook resource on crows: Getting Up, Preparing, Reading, Walking, Dwelling, Helping, Seeing, Coexisting, Dying and Flying. Then again, the subtitle should have been my first clue (Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness), that Crow Planet is as much
