The Boy Who Drew Birds

Reviews
Kirkus — Starred Review
This winsomely imagined account of an episode when Audubon was 18 years old joins the flocks of commemorative works. Davies's narration...[provides a] tight, appealing focus on a lonely, bird-obsessed young man whose perfectionism led him to burn his artwork every year and who burned to demystify the migratory habits of small birds. Sweet's illustrations soar, incorporating mixed-media collage into her line-and-watercolor paintings in a gloriously eclectic mélange that evokes both the time and Audubon's scientific enthusiasms. A solid offering.

The Washington Post
This delicately illustrated books shows the Haitian-born Audubon as an 18-year-old in Pennsylvania, already crazed about birds and clearly more interested in watching them in the wild than studying them in books....Davies does full justice to this tale of intellectual precocity and single-mindedness.

The Boston Globe
The Boy Who Drew Birds focuses on the year young John James Audubon spent alone at his father's farm in Pennsylvania, wondering if the small birds nesting nearby would return the following spring....Jacqueline Davies's prose is sprightly and evocative throughout...Davies tells the story of his year of close observation and makes it exciting and engaging....a lovely introduction to the life and work of an extraordinary man.

The Horn Book
Though best known for his precise ornithological paintings, Audubon was also distinguished for scientific curiosity, as dramatized in this slightly fictionalized account of an incident from the French boy's earliest time in the United States. No one knew in the early 1800s what became of songbirds in the winter; scientists' unfounded theories included Aristotle's guess that they "hibernated under water," while some of Audubon's contemporaries "believed that birds transformed from one kind into another." Though knowledge concerning actual migration paths would await another century, Audubon postulated that the same birds returned each spring and proved it by banding phoebe nestlings with silver thread and finding them, months later, nesting near their natal site. Melissa Sweet's relaxed watercolor style and skillful incorporation of collage, plus a lively narration that illuminates Audubon's passion for observation and sets his pivotal insight into context, make this appealing vignette a fine introduction to his work. Author and illustrator source notes and a bibliography are appended.

U.S. World and News Report
OK, so maybe the famous bird painter wasn't your typical guy. Something of a "cracked pot," was how the housekeeper who cared for the French teen after his arrival in the United States described him. "Birds! Always birds!" A failure in school, Audubon spent long hours outside studying his feathered friends, eager to become an expert naturalist. Along the way, he showed that Aristotle was wrong—small birds didn't spend the winter under water or curled up in hollow logs. The first North American to band a bird, Audubon helped prove the theory of small-bird migration. And, or course, his glorious paintings show that even a cracked pot can fly high.

School LIbrary Journal
This readable account focuses on a short period in the famous naturalist's youth. Audubon, who was born and raised in France, was sent to America at age 18 to avoid service in Napoleon's army. Living in his father's farmhouse in Pennsylvania, he roamed the countryside and observed nature. His interest in birds and their migration habits led him to watch a family of pewee flycatchers (Eastern Phoebes) that nested in a limestone cave nearby. In order to determine whether the same creatures returned each year, he banded the young birds with silver thread before they flew south in autumn, providing a means of identification when they returned in spring. Davies relates how the self-taught painter and ornithologist combined his artistic talent and keen skills of observation to produce detailed, life-sized portraits of birds "alive and moving." Sweet's extensive research is evident in her carefully crafted, mixed-media artwork, which includes photos of found objects, re-created pages from a nature sketchbook, maps, and watercolor paintings of young Audubon in the rolling Pennsylvania countryside. Students writing reports can find further information in Peter Anderson's John James Audubon: Wildlife Artist (Sagebrush, 1996). The Boy Who Drew Birds is a wonderful and accessible introduction to a man who made a great impact on the science of ornithology.

Booklist
The story opens with 18-year-old French naturalist John James Audubon roaming Pennsylvania countryside in search of birds. In an effort to determine whether individual birds return to the same nests in the spring, he uses silver thread to band some fledgling pewee flycatchers. He observes them as they grow through the summer, leave for the winter, and return the following year. An appended historical note explains that Audubon was the first person in North America to band a bird and that Audubon became "the greatest painter of birds of all time," while a source note details which parts of the story are based on speculation, and an illustrator's note comments on research, inspiration, and technique. Sweet's mixed-media collage artwork includes sensitive pencil sketches and ink drawings washed with watercolors and gouache, as well as elements such as photos of bird nests and bones. A good companion to Jennifer Armstrong's picture-book biography Audubon (2003), which relates several incidents in the painter's later life, this handsome book makes a beguiling introduction to the painter.

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