Thunder Birds

I vividly remember the first bald eagle I ever saw in nature.  Like many of us, I grew up in a time when the bald eagle was endangered (it became endangered in 1967), so I never expected I would see one in the wild.  About ten years ago, a friend was driving along the highway here in Montana, and I was in the passenger seat.  She said "Look there!" and pointed out my window, just as the eagle took flight.  I will never forget that amazing and majestic sight.  It took me by surprise as the eagle soared above us, riding a wind current.  It was an experience I will never forget.

Thunder Birds focuses on nature's flying predators, as the subtitle of this book calls them.  Beginning on the very first page, Arnosky explains how he sought out these birds in wildlife parks, reserves and sanctuaries across the United States.  Just like my experience with that bald eagle, Jim Arnosky loves the birds of prey.  You can hear it in the reverence and respect in his tone as he describes their habits . 

This book feels very personal to me.  While Arnosky has written about his research strategies and his family's involvement in his research in books such as Monster Hunt, Arnosky's introduction begins with his wife, Deanna.  They have traveled together to find all these birds and paint them.  The book is broken up into sections, and almost every section has a personal experience included.  His heart is clearly in this.  Arnoksy tells readers about the time he held a wild eagle by its strong feet so it wouldn't attack while a biologist mended its wing.  He also recounts time spent in the Everglades, monitoring the carcass of an alligator that Black Vultures fed on for a week.  These stories bring the birds to life for young readers, who will definitely be fascinated by Arnosky's experiences.

This book is written with young readers in mind.  Each section includes a narrative page on the group of birds featured, which might include owls, herons and egrets, vultures and others.  The narrative section includes Arnosky's compelling recollections as well as additional information about the group in general.  For instance, on the page about owls, he describes their feathers, and how they allow owls to take prey without any sound.  Then he remembers an owl swooping down on him from behind, without him ever hearing it coming.  It allows readers to envision how they would feel as the owl's prey.

There are four fold-out pages with life-size paintings of different groups.  Each of these fold-out pages includes specific information about the different types of birds within that group.  Each type is identified ("Great Gray Owl") and then Arnosky lists their length, wingspan and their habitat in the United States.  The way the information on the fold-out pages dovetails with the information on the narrative pages is impeccable.  There are small bites of facts for readers who will want to know the nitty-gritty about a particular bird.  There are also facts presented in the longer text to give readers a more overall picture of the group.  It's perfect for readers of any interest level.

The pictures in this book are incredible too.  As I've mentioned, the fold-out pages are almost all life-size birds.  Arnosky makes a point of mentioning if the bird is a different size so readers will be able to envision them correctly (the bald eagle is painted at half-size, for instance).  They are close-up and amazingly realistic.  I was amazed at how real these birds seem.  He has also painted them in their own surroundings - you see the Black Vulture standing possessively on that dead alligator, although there is no gore.  But Arnosky also includes spot illustrations with smaller details of each group, done in pencil.  The loon is shown diving under the water to catch a fish, and on the same page there is a closer look at the loon's sturdy foot.  Notes about these smaller pictures are done in Arnosky's writing, making these look as if they were taken from his sketchbook.  There are also very interesting shadowed looks at different birds' wingspans and how they might look from below.  I think these help make these birds identifiable for children, who will be scanning the skies after reading this.

All of this makes for a very strong book.  It is beautifully illustrated, and the diversity of both the illustrations and the information will make this appealing to readers across the spectrum.  I can see preschoolers looking agape at the enormous birds while older siblings and parents learn more from the text.  Arnosky has included some unusual back matter.  The author's note has a comprehensive list of sites he visited for the book, encouraging readers to visit the birds of prey.  There is a bibliography (with two more of Arnosky's titles included) and then a conversion chart to the metric system for the lengths and wingspans.  This is the perfect book to whet a reader's appetite for the thunder birds.  Hopefully, after reading it, their interest will take flight.

Note: I am on the Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book panel, but this blog post does not represent the committee's thoughts about the book.  It only represents my personal ideas and thoughts.

Thunder Birds: Nature's Flying Predators.  Sterling, 2011.

borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library

Okay for Now

When I began hearing Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now mentioned over and over as a potential Newbery winner this early in the year, I can’t say I was very surprised.  After all, he’s won the Newbery Honor Award twice (as well as a Printz Honor and other awards).  I think you would be foolish to count him out.  But I am going on record as saying if this book doesn’t win the Newbery (and possibly a Printz Award too), I’d be very surprised.  It is a multi-layered  narrative, combining history, family, coming-of-age and a little bit of romance and mystery.  It also bridges the divide between Newbery and Printz age groups gracefully.

Schmidt takes a character from The Wednesday Wars (Doug Swieteck) and moves him from Long Island to Marysville, New York.  Doug, who is going to start eighth grade, comes home one day to find out that his father has been fired after a fight with the owner of the lumber business where he works.  In Marysville, Doug’s father has a friend who can get him work at the paper mill, so off they move.  Doug’s father is a tough man, the kind who blusters, thinks he knows better than anyone else and isn’t afraid to let you know it.  He is a drinker and there is abuse in Doug’s household.  He is capable of amazing cruelty to his family, which the Swieteck boys see every day.  Each of them deal with this differently, and Doug mostly handles it by keeping his head down or disappearing when it’s a “wrong day”.

When they get to Marysville, Doug happens across the Marysville Free Public Library on a Saturday, the only day it’s open each week.  And it’s there that he sees the most amazing picture of a bird he has ever seen.  A librarian, Mr. Powell, tells Doug the book is Audubon’s Birds of America and Doug is mesmerized.  His regular visits to the bird portraits in a glass case lead to Mr. Powell teaching Doug how to draw.  He practices his skills using the portraits of the birds.  As Doug learns the techniques Audubon used to create the birds, he also learns to observe closely and to analyze exactly what makes the drawings so compelling.  The chapters are all named after birds Doug sees and draws, and I found it very helpful that reproductions of the plates are included in Schmidt’s book.  Many of the birds were not familiar to me, and as Doug describes their magnificence, readers can go back and see what he is describing for themselves.

There are so many tightly-woven details that make up Doug’s story, and I don’t want to ruin the experience for you.  Suffice to say that every story Doug retells and every detail included in this narrative counts.  Doug’s oldest brother, Lucas, is serving in the Vietnam War when the novel begins, helping to set the historical period.  But what I believe is one of Schmidt’s greatest skills is his ability to totally craft a historical era, along with period details, but allow the narrative’s themes to be very contemporary in feel and tone.  Doug is also telling the story to the reader, which feels more contemporary to me.  His tough-guy demeanor (learned at home) gradually gives way to a different way of talking to the reader as the novel moves on, and it is a good indicator of the changes in Doug.

One of the themes in this coming-of-age novel is judgment and how that can be accurate or inaccurate.  The Swieteck boys are perceived as no-good troublemakers when they arrive.  Or at least, the middle brother, Christopher, is.  He is repeatedly questioned by the police about a series of burglaries.  It does seem as if there is some evidence pointing to his involvement, but Christopher always insists he is innocent.  In the meantime, Doug is judged by his teachers, the principal and other townspeople just because he is the brother of a troublemaker.

Another theme in this book is faith – not the religion type of faith, but faith in Doug.  Because as the year goes on, more and more townspeople begin to show faith in Doug.  It begins with Mr. Powell , who sees something in Doug’s careful viewing of Birds in America that makes him take Doug under his wing, so to speak.  There is Doug’s science teacher, who tells Doug directly that it doesn’t matter what his brother does, it matters what Doug does.  There is the police officer’s family on his grocery delivery route who asks Doug to babysit their children.  This is a town full of people who get to know Doug and see his potential.  And as he is recognized for his good qualities, you begin to see a change in Doug.  He begins to break out of the mold he seems destined for at the beginning of the novel.

This book is breathtaking, both in its cruelty and its hope.  You root for Doug from the beginning, but as you get to know his family and the town of Marysville, you want them all to succeed.  I strongly believe this should be on every Mock Newbery and Printz list (Glendale Public Library, I’m talking to you!) this year.  Its combination of historical fiction, coming-of-age story and layered family narrative are compelling and exquisite.  Read it now – don’t wait until it wins a medal.

Okay for Now.  Gary D. Schmidt.  Clarion Books, 2011.

Borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library