Owl Moon
Late one winter night a little girl and her father go owling. The trees stand still as statues and the world is silent as a dream. Whoo-whoo-whoo, the father calls to the mysterious nighttime bird.
But there is no answer.
Wordlessly the two companions walk along, for when you go owling you don’t need words. You don’t need anything but hope. Sometimes there isn’t an owl, but sometimes there is.
Owl Babies
The baby owls came out of their house,
and they sat on the tree and waited.
A big branch for Sarah, a small branch for Percy,
and an old piece of ivy for Bill.
When three baby owls awake one night to find their mother gone, they can’t help but wonder where she is. Stunning illustrations from unique and striking perspectives capture the owls as they worry about their mother: What is she doing? When will she be back? What scary things move all around them? Not surprisingly, a joyous flapping and dancing and bouncing greets her return, lending a celebratory tone to the ending of this comforting tale. Never has the plight of young ones who miss their mother been so simply told or so beautifully rendered.
White Owl, 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. Back matter includes further information about nest boxes and an index.
Animal Lives: Barn Owl
“Tiny cracks appear on a shell as the first chick gets ready to leave his safe, warm world. He has a special little bump on top of his beak – an egg tooth – which helps him to push his way out.” Superbly detailed drawings capture the bird’s disarming beauty as it swoops silently in search of prey, offers gifts of food to its mate, and finds a place to nest. The carefully crafted text integrates facts about various aspects of the owl’s life cycle into a narrative that informs and fascinates. Parents and kids discovering nature together will find this a thought-provoking introduction to the appreciation of a wild animal in its natural habitat. Includes a fact file, glossary, index, and notes on habitat and conservation.
The Barn Owls
Tony Johnston’s “The Barn Owls” recalls in quiet tones the memory of a barn that has stood alone in a wheat field for one hundred years at least. The owls have nested there and have hunted in the fields and circled in the night skies as time slowly slipped by. Every night, as the moon rises, a barn owl awakens and flies out to hunt. Feathered against the endless starry night, he swoops and sails to the darkened wheat field below and catches a mouse in his nimble talons. With outstretched wings, this barn owl returns to his barn nest and his hungry family, repeating the ageless ritual his ancestors have practiced here, in this barn, for at least one hundred years. Following the life cycle of the barn owl, this gentle poem evokes a sense of warm sunshine and envelopes readers with the memory of the scent of a wheat field.
