Birds Books

I read this book because it was my second choice, and because everyone else was reading it.

Jack Daw loves birds, any types of birds. One day Jack and his class went a field trip to the local zoo. He finds himself looking straight at a nine foot tall, 345 pound ostrich! Then Jack comes up with a plan. Jack steals an extra ostrich egg that's about to be fed to a snake! Then he brings the ostrich egg back home to his family's farm.

If you want to find out what happens to the ostrich egg, and you like birds, read this book! It's very interesting!

I read this book because our teacher said that if we put a book review on Amazon.com we could keep the book. So why not? Before I read the book I thought it was about a child that was crazy about something,I didn't even think that it was about birds. The main characters in this story are Jack,Oliver,Lydia,and Wilfred. Jack has a way with birds and he is always with them he loves them so much that he gets them for birthday presents. One day his class goes on a field trip and he gets something if you what to find out read this book. This book is very interesting i think it is a very good book for all ages it is only a 127 page book too! This is one of those books that you take time out of your day to read it!

I thaught this book would be good because it had a funny name. It was good too. The cuckoo child is about a boy who loves birds of any kind. He lives with his Mom, Dad, and sister. his name is Jack Daw. In the begining Jack sees some chickens hatch. Then he ascked his father when he could have some birds of his own. His father said when he was 5. On his 5th he got budgerigars. For his 6th he got bantams. For his 7th, ducks. Then his 8th birthday came and he got geese. He named them Lidia and Wilfred. The next day Jack was going on a field trip with his class to the Wildlife Park. When they got there, there were more birds than he had expected. And then he saw it; the great male ostrich. It was amazing. His teacher came back for him and they cept going. Then they came to a sign that siad:Ostriches->. His teacher read the signthat told about ostriches. Jack asked his teacher if they would see any eggs. A man "ansered you will see lots". It was a park ranger. He showed them some eggs. After the park ranger showed them the eggs Jack sneaks an egg into his back. What happens to the egg? Read this book and find out!

This book is very interesting if you like birds. A boy takes an egg and hatches it. Its an ostrich. he raises the bird. Then the bird gets to big for the farm. What will happen to the bird? Read this book to find out!

I believe there are many lessons for a young person to learn in this wonderful little book - courage, bravery,unselfishness, and the importance of keeping a promise. The mutual trust between the pelican and the boy is a key moment in a very good story, along with the fact that the boy is so intune with nature that he "heard" the pelican and was chosen by the pelican for a great adventure.

In a time when values are being questioned and confusion reigns, this little book brings forth tidbits of wisdom for the ages. In Jose's world, good is good and right is indeed the right thing to do. Wrapped in the delightful cloak of a child's fantasy world, this story provides subtle, yet clear messages for how to be a good citizen and inhabitant of Mother Earth.

For grandparents reading to their grandchildren; for parents reading to their children; and for children of all ages reading to themselves - Ellison Smith has written a magical story that will become a standard in Chldren's Literature. The young hero is a wonderful example for all of us to follow and the wise old pelican has words of wisdom for young and old alike. This book will quickly become a first choice bedtime story for you and your kids and will promote positive questions from the youngsters about the ocean, the coast, and my favorite shorebird, the pelican.

This is a delightful story about a twelve year old boy who rescues a talking pelican. It is obviously fiction, but contains a lot of real information about the importance being good stewards of our environment and of the creatures we share it with. Informative without being "preachy," I recommend this for all school age children.

What a wonderful book! There is a great story in this book. I highly recommend it.

Quick, children! Jump right into your jammies and hop into bed for a heartwarming bedtime story - a real "Once Upon a Time" treat. It's Dr. Jane Goodall's nifty version of a timeless fable, THE EAGLE & THE WREN. You'll witness an exciting contest to determine which kind of bird can fly the highest. Here's a hint as to how it turns out: With amazing results, one of the birds counts on another for help, just the way people do. But what's more, we can all be winners even without the ability to fly the highest. We just need to strive to do our best. Take it from the ostrich in the story, "You have all done as well as nature intended...You all have wings, but each of you flies to a different height for a different purpose..." Throughout the story, be sure to keep your eyes wide open and the lights turned way up, so you can thoroughly relish the accompanying delicate, feathery pastel illustrations by Alexander Reichstein. Isn't that a gruff, menacing-looking eagle on the cover? Not to worry! He plays a very gentle and caring role in this story. THE EAGLE & THE WREN is bound to peacefully and happily carry you soaring off to dreamland.

In The Eagle & The Wren, naturalist, conservationist, and wildlife activist Jane Goodall retells the classic fable of the Eagle and the Wren who once disputed who could fly the highest. The two birds held a glorious contest to determine the issue once and for all. But the outcome surprised them all -- especially the might eagle! Alexander Reichstein's superbly presented artwork is a perfect showcase and complement to Jane Goodal's exceptional story that will enchant young readers preschool through first grade. Also very highly recommended are Goodal's three earlier children's books available from North-South Books: The Chimpanzee Family Book, With Love, and Dr. White.

This book contains the retold fable of the eagle and the wren, which was a favorite bedtime story of Dr. Jane Goodall and her sister, Judy, when they were girls. In addition, Dr. Goodall has an epilogue in which she describes her interpretation of the fable in terms of her own life. The book also contains luscious, detailed pastel drawings that add a majesty and grandeur to the tale. You will feel like you are seeing the world from a bird's eye view . . . way up on high! It's beautifully peaceful there. That's a nice way to end a bedtime story.

The story begins when all the birds have an argument about who can fly the highest. Everyone loudly proclaims their superiority. Finally, owl points out that a contest can quickly settle this dispute.

Off they go. Many of the birds don't actually go very high. When they return to Earth, they are comforted by the ostrich (who, of course, cannot fly at all) who notes that they have each done the best that they can. Some are distracted (like the vulture) and don't continue the contest.

Finally, there seems to be a winner. Just then, an O. Henry style twist occurs to turn the contest onto its head.

"How can you fly so high?"

The answer to that question will open up important lessons about the potential for cooperation. What is impossible for one is often easy for several. Many people go throughout their lives without ever understanding that point. Anyone who has read this story will always know differently. That can be the beginning of many wonderful joint accomplishments and collaborations in life.

Dr. Goodall's epilogue uses the eagle in the story as a metaphor for her life as an outstanding scientist. "We all need an eagle." "I like to think of all these people [who helped me] as the feathers on my eagle." "Each one has played an important role." " . . . [M]y eagle is part of the great spirit power that is all around us."

Almost all children's stories emphasize individual competition. This one celebrates cooperation. Every child deserves a chance to hear the cooperative side of that choice. This book is a superb way to open up that understanding.

After you finish enjoying the story together with your child, I suggest that you think together of places and situations where two or more animals, people, or combinations thereof can accomplish more together than singly. Let you child come up with the examples. That will deepen the significance of the lesson for her or him. You can cooperate by praising the ideas.

Like Dr. Jane Goodall, her staff, and the chimpanzees in the Gombe Preserve in Tanzania, may you and your child live in peaceful cooperation with all the living creatures around you!

I agree completely with the review in the July issue of Library Journal and couldn't say it better myself. The Journal stated: "In this extensively researched, detailed, and skillfully written work of natural history and familial squabbles, Stroud, a scientific scholar and author of Thomas Say, New World Naturalist, presents a historical, political, and scientific account on the leading ornithologist of the 19th century--who also happened to be Napoleon's nephew. In a clear, precise, and witty manner, she conveys the life of Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803-57)from birth to death through his own letters and publications and through the letters and correspondence of his contemporaries: Agassiz, Audubon, Gould, Huxley, Owen, Say. and many other great naturalists of the 19th century. A wonderful read, this biography, the first ever of Charles-Lucien, includes a vast bibliography and over 30 pages of notes. Recommended for all libraries." Review by Michael R. Blake, formerly with Harvard Univ. Lib. Alexander McCurdy

Adding The Emperor of Nature to your "must read" list will be one resolution that you will find a joy to keep. The author's graceful style in this scholarly, yet never pedantic, biography of the complex, heretofore little recognized naturalist and ornithologist, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, is sparked by insightful and witty asides. Players in this intellectual and political history--the contraversial Bonaparte family, both its men and women, James Audubon, Thomas Say and other natural historians--emerge as distinct personalities as we read Bonaparte's lively--often impassioned--correspondence. The drama of Bonaparte's life, marked by his lifelong dedication to the science of natural history, is deftly enhanced by rich descriptive detail as each "scene is set". Equal attention is given to the underbrush of family and scientific disputes and jealousies, to the complications of early 19th century travel and the preservation of specimens, and to physical and psychological health issues. The abundant illustrations throughout, including many from the author's own collection, (it is always so disappointing when the illustrations in a biography, no matter how erudite, are limited to a tiny center folio of tired old photographs!) were a delight to this fascinated reader.

One does not have to be an ornithologist, and I am not, to become absorbed in this scholarly yet eminently approachable biography. The life of the nephew of the Emperor Napoleon is placed confidently in the turbulent times on both sides of the Atlantic. While its focus is on the man who "helped to lay the foundation for the modern science of ornitholoy, upon which Darwin based his theory of evolution," it is, at the same time, a history of the era in which he lived. Ms. Stroud turns quite a phrase ("the ground rumbling with revolution") and I surprised myself by reading it from start to finish in one long pleasant afternoon.

Fans of the Bonaparte family and of 19th-century science have had to wait a long time for a biography of Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and the leading ornithologist of his age -- this is the first. Happily, it has been worth the wait. Stroud has crafted a masterly portrait of a gregarious, complicated, hugely talented man, who published the first volume of his famous American Ornithology when he was just 22. By drawing on Bonaparte's own voluminous correspondence and those of others to and about him, which fortunately survive in great abundance, Stroud brings alive a man full of contradictions. Bonaparte was fiercely devoted to his scientific efforts, though drawn away from them by radical politics. He loved his wife and children dearly but neglected them, often for months at a time. He was ever concerned about money, yet on numerous occasions gambled away what little he had. Bonaparte's time and contemporaries are equally well-drawn, with some of the foremost scientific, literary, and political figures of the day drifting in and out of Bonaparte's rich life with pleasing regularity -- luminaries like Louis Agassiz, James Fenimore Cooper, Isadore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, and, of course, Napoleon himself. One of the book's great contributions is a highly readable fleshing out of Bonaparte's close yet often tempestuous relationship with Audubon. Stroud has enlivened Emperor of Nature with luscious illustrations (including a beautiful color insert) chronicling every stage of Bonaparte's life, and she supplies complete reference notes and bibliography. If you liked Stroud's biography of the naturalist Thomas Say, you'll love this.

This is a fantastic overview of all of the families of birds of the world. The many authors are generally experts in their fields. The birds are placed in evolutionary order. The writers describe the physical characteristics, ecology and behaviour of all the families, and often even down to genus. The text is accompanied by many fantastic colour photographs. And as an Australian, it also good to see so many local authors and bird examples from Australia. I have used this book as a source for the general background information for the bird sections in my own books.
Damon Ramsey, author of "Rainforest of tropical Australia"

This book is well-organized and informative. It has helped me with there vivid pictures and types of endangered species

The book is well-organized an informative. This book has been a great help to mes with there vivid pictures and types of endangered species.

This book is well-organized and informative. It has helped me with there vivid pictures and types of endangered species

As my daughter was reading this the other night she remarked that this is by far the best one yet in the series - we highly recommend it.

Exile is awsome! If anything, it's a little bloody, though. I was so sure it was going to be the last book-but don't be. The last chapter guarantees there will be another book. Nyra is not yet dead.In fact, Exile has little to do with Nyra. It's mostly about the Striga burning owls. I found it a little disappointing that Tengshu didn't kill the Striga. Overall, it was a good book. Not as good as the River of Wind, though.

Riveting. Read it the same day I got it. Eagerly awaiting the next one in the series.

Lots of action. I like these weird blue owls from the middle kingdom because it introduces weirdness. Also, I like the idea of The Striga (Blue owl from the middle kingdom; member of the dragon court who were formerly hagsfiends) somehow being completely opposite to "vanity" and thinks there should be none of it. (I don't like the idea)

La Fevers has created a beautiful story with Wat and his falcons. My children were so enchanted that we read it twice in a week. That is almost unheard of in our home. The descriptions of Wat and his baby falcons were vivid and touching. The themes of rejection and redemption were moving. The idea of a boy coming into his own was touching. Really, I can't say enough good about this book!!

I am a mom who is taking dictation from my son, Connor. We read this book together and I secretly loved it as much as him!

"It was one of my favorite books in the world. Even though Wat had disabilities, he had even more special ABILITIES. His disabilities made him strong, and gave him a heartfelt sense of justice. I don't want to give the story away, but in the end Wat did something I have always wanted to do! You have to read this story to find out what. His love for falcons was amazing".

This book was GREAT!! The storyline had me trapped from the very beginning. I really enjoyed the way magic worked in La Fevers' world. I love stories that focus on nature, animals, and magic, and with this story's medieval setting, this book was a perfect match. I would recommend this book to anyone.

This book had a falcon-like hold on me from its galloping start to the deeply satisfying ending. One wonders if author R.L. LaFevers hasn't swallowed whole a young medieval boy who now channels through her. This story works on so many levels-- it has universal appeal in its classic battle of the archetypes, and Wat, with his physical challenges, is an unlikely but noble hero.
Wat and the old wizard Griswold call up the imperfect best in all of us. This is an amazing first novel. Call me a fantasy convert.

I became aware of this book through an article Hemingway wrote about books he would like to read twice. Well I can say that this book is best read in the winter, for it will melt the snow in puddles around your shoe, and warm your heart and soul at the same time. So make haste and buy it now, while the cold winds still blow.

The Argentine pampas was a land of freedom and excitement: one literary figurehead W.H. Hudson describes in his memoir FAR AWAY & LONG AGO: A CHILDHOOD IN ARGENTINA. Descriptions of natural history and wildlife abound - and also of politics and interpersonal relationships of the times. You'd think FAR AWAY & LONG AGO would give insights into Hudson's childhood and life - and it does - but more importantly it recreates the history, culture and geography of Argentina in a way few travel books accomplish.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

As we continue to pave over the beauties of our world and turn them into concrete wastelands, it is good to think back what life was like 150 years ago before we began the process of destruction in earnest.

W. H. Hudson, the naturalist, is revered in Argentina, where they refer to him as Guillermo Enrique Hudson and name streets and towns after him. In simple and stately prose, he writes about his boyhood as one of several sons in an English family that ran an estancia on the Pampas. Despite several failed attempts to school him, he managed to pick up one of the best educations available: by using his eyes and ears to study nature. His skill in language, which is considerable, came from reading his father's books on his own.

Whether writing about ombu trees, plovers, snakes, lightning storms, rheas (Argentinian ostriches), or his neighboring ranchers, Hudson brought a whole world to life with this book.

Hudson published FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO in 1917 while he was living in England -- around the same time that a Frenchman named Marcel Proust was following where that elusive taste of madeleines led him in REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST, and around the same time that World War I was destroying a whole way of life. As he writes in the book:

"It is difficult, impossible I am told, for any one to recall his boyhood exactly as it was. It could not have been what it seems to the adult mind, since we cannot escape from what we are, however great our detachment may be; and in going back we must take our present selves with us: the mind has taken a different colour, and this is thrown back upon our past. The poet has reversed the order of things when he tells us that we come trailing clouds of glory, which melt away and are lost as we proceed on our journey. The truth is that unless we belong to the order of those who crystallize or lose their souls on their passage, the clouds gather about us as we proceed, and as cloud-compellers we travel on to the very end."

FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO is perhaps one of the greatest autobiographies ever written. Although I finished reading it several days ago, I am still feeling its afterglow and get this itch to re-read passages from it. This is, indeed, a book that will withstand several readings.

I could never make it through Hudson's fantasy __Green Mansions__, but __Far Away and Long Ago__ is another book altogether. Written when Hudson was approaching eighty, more than forty years after he had left Argentina for good, it's filled with the kind of longing you might expect. And even though he's a witness to the mid-nineteenth civil wars in Argentina or, more incredibly still, listens to travelers reciting poems by the eighteenth-century Spaniard Menéndez Valdés, Hudson seems modern; he makes other times, other places, far away and long ago, as he calls them, seem incredibly near.

Hudson's excellent short story "El Ombú" is also well worth seeking out. And, finally, while it's true Hudson left Argentina for England, the US also has some claim to him; it was from New England, after all, that, shortly before his birth, his American family left for Argentina. Just thought I'd make that clear, since people are always calling him "Anglo-Argentine".

It has a lot of good information on poaching in North Africa and a lot of other places in the world that elephants were poached at. It really makes you see the world like an elephant as though you were an elephant. it brings out your greatest fantasies about elephants that you would never dream of. This book was just really great.

While Douglas H. Chadwick's extraordinary book is titled "The Fate of the Elephant" and does an incredible job of presenting the decidedly bleak future of this magnificent animal in the face of an incredible human-induced onslaught, it does more than just examine that issue. At its heart, this book is about the fate of the "natural world"; that is, the world as it was/is before it has been shaped by human contact. The explosion in the human population is increasingly reducing and destroying the habitat of not just elephants, but other animal species in general, and Chadwick recognizes this. Chadwick's book is thoroughly researched, decidedly well-written, and a joy to read. As stated by another reviewer, as clear as it is that Chadwick's sympathies lie with the elephant itself, he shows remarkable restraint in not condemning those who make the future of the elephant so bleak. As such, the book makes the reader realize that while it is quite easy to sit in our comfortable homes and condemn those who are forcing these elephants into fewer and fewer numbers, there are real problems and concerns on the other side of the coin as well. Without stealing any of the author's thunder, I would just say that this is easily one of the best books I have ever read, and while my sympathies are definitely on the side of the elephants, this book was a sobering and tremendously informative look at the full scope of the problem that elephants and animal species in general face. Furthermore, the best thing this book did, in my opinion, was force me to really think about humankind, its relationship to the other species on the planet, how certain dominant views of that relationship have led us to the where we are today, and what might need to be done in order to prevent large scale extinctions in this upcoming century (which is where I personally fear we might be headed).

Incredibly detailed reporting and an easy, conversational writing style make this one of the most rewarding books I have ever read. The author writes of travelling the world, observing human and elephant interactions in dozens of different countries; part travelogue, part eco-primer, and wholly absorbing. And Chadwick makes a convincing case for keeping the African elephant on the endangered species list. This book is perhaps even more important now than when it was published _ only recently CITES (the UN group that makes the endangered species list) decided to allow some southern African countries to sell ivory again. I'd love to see the author's thoughts on these new developments. Anyone concerned with conservation or animal welfare should read this book. Personally, I found Chadwick's work so interesting and educational that after reading it I booked a trip to Africa to see these great beasts _ before the opportunity is gone forever

In a mere 475 pages, Douglas Chadwick's The Fate of the Elephant manages to thoroughly cover a range of subjects almost as large as the elephants that serve as its focus. Originally assigned by National Geographic as a piece on "elephants of the world," each chapter in the book opens in a new setting, from the elephant enclosure at an American zoo, to the parts of Africa and Asia where elephants can still be found in the wild. From the workshop of Japanese ivory artisans to a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference in Switzerland, he also journeys to elephantless areas where their presence is still felt.

Knowing a little about man's history with elephants, I assumed-even daresay expected-that at least some parts of the book would be dedicated to the kind of finger-pointing induction of guilt that has come to be seen as a means to inspire action on the part of the general public. Refreshingly, there is none of that to be found here, yet the final emotions that the reader comes away with are no less strong. Chadwick does not trivialize the fact that, for him, writing The Fate of the Elephant was as much a personal exploration of a subject of lifetime interest as a travel adventure undertaken for the sake of National Geographic. His frankly portrayed moments of sheer joy and of utter frustration become highs and lows for the reader as well.

Along these same lines, Chadwick skillfully avoids simplifying those engaged in the struggle over what should be done with elephants into "good guy" and "bad guy" camps. Though having just seen the body of a faceless and bloody young bull elephant lying in the bush, he does not celebrate when reports of killed poachers come across his radio. Likening poaching to the illegal drug trade, he knows that the crises of a burgeoning population have pushed many of those living on the margins into these high-risk jobs, while those orchestrating it all sit out of the way in relative safety. The ever-growing human population also drives habitat degradation, the other main threat to African wildlife. It comes as a shot of realism when Chadwick points out that these days, even Africans have to go to parks and zoos to see African wildlife.

Describing the World War I bolt-action guns with which many park rangers must ridiculously face off against AK-47-toting poachers, Chadwick highlights one of the great challenges to wildlife conservation: economics. Not only does poaching rob resources from local economies, but even legal industries such as tourism pay few monetary returns at the local level. He advocates the need to make conservation economically viable to local people, not just something imposed by the government of the moment.

Chadwick integrates scientific concepts in a subtle way that guarantees that even those simply looking for a good "animal tale" will come away as more knowledgeable armchair naturalists. Judging from the brevity of his bibliography relative to the amount of material packed into the book, this integrated approach may be the same way that Chadwick picked up much of his technical knowledge of elephants-not by purely poring over scientific texts as much as by living alongside some of the best in the field, in the field.

The only missing element in Chadwick's work seems to be information about the time period in which he was in each place. While perhaps intended as a testament to the timeless quality of life spent in elephants' presence, it seemed most peculiar in a book whose message was a sense of urgency, that time was of the utmost importance.

As an avid reader of picture books, I knew by the title alone I would love this book, and author Marsha Hayles Scheiber doesn't disappoint. The first page makes you want to turn the page: The mother birds/like gentle words/took flight one wintry day... Her words are so soft and soothing and lyrical, this not only makes a great Christmas gift, but also a lullaby of a bedtime story. After a long flight, the birds reach "At last warm land, a sea of sand..." where a baby who will change the world is about to be born, Jesus. The mother birds build the child a soft nest, hence "the feathered crown." I get chills when I read this book. The illustrations by Bernadette Pons are a perfect match for the text: soft, soothing, child-friendly. This is one of my favorite books, a gem of a book.

By giving us a bird's eye-view, THE FEATHERED CROWN takes a unique and touching look at the Nativity story. Hayles gentle, alliterative rhyme soars, as each stanza rises in meter. Pons soft watercolors compliment the text and are restful to the eye. Lines like, "They gathered bits/ of straw and sticks,/ and leaves to cushion best--/To build a home,/a manger throne,/a feather-softened nest." depict how loving mother birds may have helped another mother long ago in Bethleham. A bright addition to every Holiday collection!

This is the most beautiful Christmas picture book that I've seen in a long time. The soft and meaningful words flow across the pages like ribbons of silk - and are delicious to read out loud. It's good to see a Christmas book that touchs on the true meaning of the holyday.

I think Feathered Crown is a wondeful children's book. It is a lovely story, and the words flow so well. "The mother birds, like gentle words, took wing one wintry day." These gentle words are then further complemented by beautiful pictures. Feathered Crown is one of my family's favorite Christmas books.