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Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier
Briefly tells the story of this nineteenth-century painter and naturalist who is most famous for his detailed paintings of birds.
40 pages, Hardcover
Published March 1, 2003
32 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Armstrong
96 books71 followersJennifer Armstrong learned to read and write in Switzerland, in a small school for English speaking children on the shores of Lake Zurich. The school library had no librarian and no catalog – just shelves of interesting books. She selected books on her own, read what she could, and made up the rest. It was perfect. As a result, she made her career choice – to become an author – in first grade. When she and her family returned to the U.S. she discovered that not all children wrote stories and read books, and that not all teachers thought reading real books was important. Nevertheless, she was undaunted. Within a year of leaving college she was a free-lance ghost writer for a popular juvenile book series, and before long published her first trade novel, Steal Away, which won her a Golden Kite Honor for fiction.
More than fifty additional novels and picture books followed, and before long she also tried her hand at nonfiction, winning an Orbis Pictus Award and a Horn Book Honor for her first nonfiction book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. In late 2003 she will travel to the South Pole with the National Science Foundation to do research for a book on ice.
More than fifty additional novels and picture books followed, and before long she also tried her hand at nonfiction, winning an Orbis Pictus Award and a Horn Book Honor for her first nonfiction book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. In late 2003 she will travel to the South Pole with the National Science Foundation to do research for a book on ice.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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December 22, 2013The opening scene of this book depicts John James Audubon on horseback, walking slowly through the woods looking for birds. The horse begins to act strangely, and an earthquake begins to shake the trees and stir up leaves on the ground, startling birds from the undergrowth. Audubon’s prized possession, his leather folder full of paintings and drawings of wildlife, made it safely through the earthquake. At this point in the book, the author reveals that Audubon is the not simply a wildlife artist, he is the premier expert on the birds of America.
The author uses well-crafted retellings of several adventures that Audubon experienced as he explored the wilderness of America’s frontier, documenting over a thousand birds in his collection of drawings and paintings. Using Audubon’s personal diaries as her inspiration, the author brings to life Audubon’s encounters with bears, dangerous travel on an icy river in a keelboat, talking with native people of the Shawnee tribe, and witnessing a pack of twenty wolves attempting an attack on a frozen river “covered with immense flocks of trumpeter swans”.
Throughout the book, the author is careful to point out that despite Audubon’s impressive artistic talent, he had many shortcomings. Although young Audubon was charged with running one of his father’s farms, “very little of his attention was spent on the farm”. When he and his partner opened a hardware store in Kentucky, Audubon “roamed the woods “when he should have been tending business”. The author describes Audubon as “restless” and acknowledges in the Author’s Note that “over the years, art historians have questioned and discredited some of the stories that Audubon claimed were true”. The book’s illustrator, in the Artist’s Note, marvels at the discovery that Audubon could paint with both hands at the same time. Conversely, the illustrator’s research and reading revealed that Audubon was a self-promoting artist who “invented fantastic stories about himself to boost sales”.
Despite the argument that some of Audubon’s journal entries may be only partially true, this beautifully illustrated biography gives proper credit to Audubon as an artist who made unparalleled contributions to the fields of art and nature.
The author uses well-crafted retellings of several adventures that Audubon experienced as he explored the wilderness of America’s frontier, documenting over a thousand birds in his collection of drawings and paintings. Using Audubon’s personal diaries as her inspiration, the author brings to life Audubon’s encounters with bears, dangerous travel on an icy river in a keelboat, talking with native people of the Shawnee tribe, and witnessing a pack of twenty wolves attempting an attack on a frozen river “covered with immense flocks of trumpeter swans”.
Throughout the book, the author is careful to point out that despite Audubon’s impressive artistic talent, he had many shortcomings. Although young Audubon was charged with running one of his father’s farms, “very little of his attention was spent on the farm”. When he and his partner opened a hardware store in Kentucky, Audubon “roamed the woods “when he should have been tending business”. The author describes Audubon as “restless” and acknowledges in the Author’s Note that “over the years, art historians have questioned and discredited some of the stories that Audubon claimed were true”. The book’s illustrator, in the Artist’s Note, marvels at the discovery that Audubon could paint with both hands at the same time. Conversely, the illustrator’s research and reading revealed that Audubon was a self-promoting artist who “invented fantastic stories about himself to boost sales”.
Despite the argument that some of Audubon’s journal entries may be only partially true, this beautifully illustrated biography gives proper credit to Audubon as an artist who made unparalleled contributions to the fields of art and nature.
December 19, 2016
Included in our art studies of John James Audubon.
Portrayed Audubon during that time when he was wandering the Kentucky woods, encountering nature in all of its untamed glory. A lovely retelling of some stories that may slip more to the side of legend, versus absolute truth, but inspiring and all the same. Another book that might easily help create desire in a child to experience the natural world.
Portrayed Audubon during that time when he was wandering the Kentucky woods, encountering nature in all of its untamed glory. A lovely retelling of some stories that may slip more to the side of legend, versus absolute truth, but inspiring and all the same. Another book that might easily help create desire in a child to experience the natural world.
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July 16, 2011I really liked this book - great artwork accompanies it!
September 4, 2011
I love reading things like this - people immersed in the subject they love.
July 3, 2016
For a guy who painted birds, his story (whether or not it's all true) is a lot more exciting than you'd think.
September 15, 2015
This is defiantly more for mature readers. I loved learning but younger kids would have a hard time staying interested, I feel. The illustrations were absolutely stunning and powerful!
January 29, 2016
The pictures in this book are amazing!
March 3, 2016
meadowlark
June 9, 2010
Great book with great illustrations. Included are some of Mr. Audubon's works.
December 26, 2014
Good Book
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews