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Synopsis As a young man, John James Audubon, the renowned early American woodsman and artist, had to make a choice between following his father’s dreams for him and discovering his own special destiny. In this beautifully conceived book, Robert Burleigh intersperses quotations taken directly from Audubon’s journals with an imaginary conversation in which Audubon tells his father why he has chosen to forgo the ordinary life of a shopkeeper and instead live out in nature to develop his art and his relationship with the world. Illustrated not only with sumptuous images by Wendell Minor, but with actual drawings by Audubon himself, this book will appeal to Audubon fans of all ages. Reviews From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY -  starred review:Having previously written about Thoreau, Lindbergh and Babe Ruth, Burleigh continues his series of biographies of famous men in this poetic picture book about John James Audubon (1785-1851), sumptuously illustrated by Minor. The volume begins with advice to Audubon from his father: “`Be a store owner,’ his father said./But John went to the woods instead.” As an author’s note explains, what follows is Burleigh’s imagined response, penned by Audubon in a letter to his father, in an ornate 19th-century style with rhymed couplets: “O father, dear Father, to me it seems/No one can fail who holds to his dreams.” The flow of the narrative parallels quotations from the naturalist’s journals, just as Audubon’s own paintings sometimes appear as spot art to mirror Minor’s illustrations. Author and artist present Audubon as both idealistic and gentle, and though he doesn’t “save every cent” as his father wants him to, he ends up “saving” in his artwork the disappearing world he observes (“And I must paint it all because/We need this memory of what was”). His philosophy wafts through the volume like a summer breeze. Minor breathtakingly captures a landscape with a blue heron in the marsh as easily as a close-up of a dying dove, alongside a poem deft and sure. Nature-lovers, and budding artists will want to know about this one. Awards 2003 NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children You may choose your favorite Internet bookseller below or use the "Book Web" Link to find a bookseller near you. The Hickory Stick Bookshop Amazon Barnes And Noble Book Web |
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Free E-mail Postcard Send a special greeting to a friend. Choose from several specially selected Wendell Minor illustrations. |