Synopses & Reviews
Borden's father, Leon, was a logger in the old-growth forests of California. That is, until the spotted-owl lovers interfered. One day, frustrated by his father's unemployment, Borden sets out on a mission of revenge against the spotted owl but returns home with a half-starved owlet instead.
The family soon discovers that the owlet, whom Borden names Bardy, loves to take showers and watch late-night TV. Only after the whole family has fallen in love with Bardy do they realize that the conflict between nature and human industry is not so easily resolved.
Award-winning nature writer jean Craighead George tells a heartwarming story about a family and their love affair with a special little owl.
Synopsis
It's people versus owls in this laugh-out-loud story about one family's love for a special little owl, from bestselling nature writer and Newbery Medal winner Jean Craighead George
Borden Watson's father is out of job, and it's all the spotted owls' fault. The birds are endangered, which means loggers, like Mr. Watson, are no longer allowed to cut down trees.
It doesn't make sense to Borden. Why are owls being put first over the citizens?
But when Borden finds an owlet in the forest who needs his care, he brings it back home--much to Mr. Watson's displeasure. Hilarious chaos soon ensues, as the tiny owl makes big changes in this logging family's home, and makes his way into their hearts.
This heartwarming story is a great way for young readers to learn about important topics, like endangered species, conservation, and environmentalism.
--School Library Journal
Synopsis
There's An Owl In The Shower (PB)
About the Author
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in a family of naturalists, Jean George has centered her life around writing and nature. She attended Pennsylvania State University, graduating with degrees in English and science. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps and a reporter for the
Washington Post. Ms. George, who has written over 90 books - among them
My Side of the Mountain (Dutton), a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, and its sequels
On the Far Side of the Mountain and
Frightful's Mountain (both Dutton) - also hikes, canoes, and makes sourdough pancakes. In 1991, Ms. George became the first winner of the School Library Media Section of the New York Library Association's Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature, which was presented to her for the "consistent superior quality" of her literary works.
Her inspiration for the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves evolved from two specific events during a summer she spent studying wolves and tundra at the Arctic Research Laboratory of Barrow, Alaska: "One was a small girl walking the vast ad lonesome tundra outside of Barrow; the other was a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park ... They haunted me for a year or more, as did the words of one of the scientists at the lab: 'If there ever was any doubt in my mind that a man could live with the wolves, it is gone now. The wolves are truly gentlemen, highly social and affectionate.'"
The mother of three children, Jean George is a grandmother who has joyfully red to her grandchildren since they were born. Over the years Jean George has kept 173 pets, not including dogs and cats, in her home in Chappaqua, New York. "Most of these wild animals depart in autumn, when the sun changes their behavior and they feel the urge to migrate or go off alone. While they are with us, however, they become characters in my books, articles, and stories."