Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-8. The author-illustrator of Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet Year (1991), Bowen now introduces children to animals she has observed near her Minnesota home. While the introductory theme centers on the traces that animals leave behind, such as footprints of different sizes, shapes, and patterns, the book also provides a general introduction to each animal. In a conversational tone that ranges from poetic to avuncular and from mundane to original, the text offers information and personal observations as well as quotations from Native Americans showing how they regarded individual creatures of the northern forests. Each double-page spread includes a striking woodcut tinted with watercolor washes, with the text and the life-size footprints appearing on the facing page. Attractively designed, this book provides an original, personal view of 13 wild animals native to North America. ~--Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bowen's follow-up to her environmentally inspired Antler, Bear, Canoe again focuses on the author's beloved home in the Minnesota northwoods. This time out she provides facts, observations and insights about the creatures that live and consequently make tracks near her house; she also supplies suggestions for how to track various forms of wildlife. Each spread consists of a rustic woodblock print of an animal accompanied by a detail of the creature's tracks and a paragraph of information. Occasionally an appropriate quote--often from a Native American--is also included. Bowen's tone is sometimes a bit too introspective--``A sense of animals' presence on the earth is important to me as a part of feeling connected to all things''--but the personal anecdotes also lend an air of authenticity. Her bold prints, which starkly contrast thick black against icy blues and whites, offer a moving and dramatic interpretation of the natural world. All ages. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Powerful woodcuts washed with color are a dramatic accompaniment to a modest, accurate text describing 13 creatures whose tracks may be seen in northern woodlands or meadows. Many of the pages include quotes from Native Americans within their bordered frames, with the life-sized tracks themselves angling beneath. Perhaps not as informative as Jim Arnosky's Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracking (Bradbury, 1989) or as thoroughly detailed as David Webster's Track Watching (Watts, 1972; o.p.), but definitely a handsome, highly personal, artistic addition to gladden readers' hearts and sharpen their eyes before venturing into a real forest.-Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Bowen's enthusiasm for the wild world around her energizes the one-page description of each of thirteen animals found in the northwoods of Minnesota. Quotes about nature from various well-known Native-American leaders accompany the text, and lovingly executed hand-colored woodblock prints capture the graceful lines of each animal's body and habitat. A perfect book for sharing before and after a hike in the woods. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The author-illustrator of Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet Year (1991) takes a second look at the forest near her Minnesota home, once again structuring her material creatively to explicate her theme. Presenting 13 animals, roughly in size order from mouse to moose, Bowen represents their footprints in actual size, provides outstandingly handsome portraits (her woodcuts' stark, angular black is overlaid with luminous watercolors of delectable subtlety), and adds brief commentaries on what can be learned by following animals' tracks and observing other evidence of their passing. Scientific names are included, but the well- chosen quotes (from Winnie-the Pooh and the Book of Job as well as several Native Americans)--which underline Bowen's quiet reverence for the animals and what their ways may teach humans- -are not always sourced. Still, a lovely book, intelligently conceived and beautifully executed. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4+)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
