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Summary
Summary
An award-winning author and illustrator swoop into the wondrous world of the barn owl.
A young girl and her grandfather look for a barn owl night after night. Will a distinctive heart-shaped face appear at the window? Michael Foreman's lush, intimate paintings are a perfect companion to Nicola Davies's lyrical text featuring intriguing facts about a rare bird indeed.
Author Notes
Nicola Davies was born on May 3, 1958. She is an English zoologist and writer. She was one of the original presenters of the BBC children's wildlife programme The Really Wild Show. She has also made her name as a children's author. Her books include Home, which was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award, and Poo (2004), which was illustrated by Neal Layton, and was shortlisted for a Blue Peter Book Award in 2006; in the United States, the book is published as Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable. She has also written several novels for adults under the pseudonym Stevie Morgan. Her title,The Promise, was shortlisted for the Kate Greenway Medal in 2015 for best illustrator.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3--Owls have a mysterious simplicity that most people find intriguing. Nicola Davies weaves this feeling into her gentle story (Candlewick, 2007) about a young girl and her grandfather. Grandpa knows about owls, and teaches his granddaughter. Together they wait to see if the nest box he's placed high in a nearby tree will be an acceptable home for a local owl family. When it is, they both rejoice. This gentle, sweet story also contains some good information about barn owls. While Debra Leigh reads the first-person narration, Michael Foreman's warm, detailed watercolor illustrations are scanned iconographically. Flowing background music enhances, but never overwhelms. The presentation includes two segments that provide additional information about barn owls and nest boxes. A useful literature tie-in to science lessons about birds.--Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The gentle quietness of the barn owl pervades the pages of this lovely story. The creature is the center attraction for a girl and her grandfather who construct a nest box in the hopes of setting their sights on this rather elusive bird. Davies (Extreme Animals) serves as an authority on all things avian, peppering her tale with various factoids about owls set in a typeface that resembles handwritten notes to the reader ("Owls swallow their prey whole; that?s why they need to spit out the bones and fur"). The girl?s voice, characterized by both amazement and anticipation, balances out the authoritative information (" ?We?ll have to be patient,? said Grandpa. We were patient lots of times!"). Equally effective are Foreman?s (Shakespeare Stories) lush paintings of the night landscape, awash in a palette of cool blues and muted whites cast a luminescent glow on the owl. When the patient duo finally spots the mysterious bird, he is not unlike an angel spreading his wings across the heavens. This story will resonate with nature lovers and introduce new enthusiasts to a wondrous bird. Ages 5-8. (May) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.