The Beaver Pond

by Alvin Tresselt, Roger Duvoisin (Illustrator)

Pictorial cover with decorative end papers and color illustrations. 56 unnumbered pages.

Genres: Picture Books, Nature, Childrens, Animals, Science

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Alvin Tresselt (1916-2000) was born in New Jersey. He was an editor for Humpty Dumpty magazine and an executive editor for Parent’s Magazine Press before becoming an instructor and the Dean of Faculty for the Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut. He wrote over thirty children’s books, selling over a million copies. Although White Snow, Bright Snow won the Caldecott Medal in 1948, his best-known book is a retelling of the Ukranian folk tale The Mitten. Tresselt was a pioneer in children’s writing, well known for his poetic prose style. He created the “mood” picture book, in which the setting and description for a story was even more important than the characters and plot.
Memoria Press First Grade Enrichment Guide

Reviews

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tresselt explains the life cycle of a beaver dam in rich text as only he can!

Learn how beavers make their homes, the neighbors that it brings and how the stream changes as a result.

Great illustrations from Duvoisin!

Ages: 4 - 10

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found The Beaver Pond quite by accident, turning left instead of right and getting lost amongst the picture books. I'm very lucky in the library that I frequent in that it quite often throws up hidden treasures in this manner.

The Beaver Pond is a slim picture book first published in 1971 and is a fairly traditional production. We have images and text clearly delineated; the full page heavily coloured images stand by themselves and where a double page spread occurs, there's a white gutter across the bottom of the spread for the text to stand on.

It tells the story of the life-cycle of a beaver pond. We follow it throughout the seasons and see how the weather affects the animals that live round and about the pond ("the winter snows swept down, filling the hollows / and covering the secret runways of field mice"). The pond starts to shrink over the years, packed up by mud and dirt and eventually it grows too small for the beavers and they move on. When the spring floods come, the damn (no longer maintained by the beavers) breaks and the waters sweep over the small pond and into a stream ("Once more the stream ran free, / Bit by bit the muddy floor of the old pond / turned green. Young plants sprang up in the rich earth and where once a pond / had caught and held the blue sky / there spread a green and grassy meadow / with a brook meandering through it"). The beavers, down-stream, had already built a dam for their home and this catches the stream and forms a new pond for all the animals to live in and around.

This is coming up to 40 years old and naturally is showing a little age but there's still a charm about this book that appeals. I really like the quiet message about rejuvenation and the cyclical nature of, um, nature. I was reminded a lot of the Silver Brumby books by Elyne Mitchell as both books share a strong painterly touch for describing their native locales.

If you see this on a bookshelf somewhere, quite probably deep in the shadows, don't be put off by the slightly dated air of the front cover. It's a charming, quiet book with some very beautiful moments.

[Gale · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Beavers Shaping our World”
"Nature Shaping and Reshaping our World"

This gentle book contains no story, no plot, nor even any characters with whom children can identify—yet it presents a time-lapse exposure of the multiple effects of the patient creation of a beaver pond. Readers come to understand the relationship between persevering labor and the expansion of bio diversity (both flora and fauna). Once the young beavers are ready to follow the family business on their own they set off downstream to select another site for a dam. The lives of many kinds of animals are improved as a pond gradually fills; new vegetation appears thanks to the industrious work of a new beaver couple. But over time nature takes her toll and the pond eventually disappears. Fortunately this cycle of creation and destruction will regenerate farther downstream. Loss is only temporary, for life will renew itself.

September 4, 2018

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

This features some lovely classic illustrations. It tells the story of how beavers working a stream, building their dam, and setting up their lodges can change the environment--providing a place for all sorts of animals to find food and drink and raise their young.

[Bree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Notes:
how beavers build and change the landscape in the process -- intriguing with great illustrations

[Debby]

Story of what happens when beavers for a pond. Life cycle of it explained. Color (oil?) pictures.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to read along with Alice Goudey's more detailed chapter book, Here Come the Beavers! I usually enjoy Tresselt's nature picture books, and this was no exception.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovely illustrations-abstract, yet recognizable down to "which species of heron is that?"

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an older book that is a hidden treasure for anyone doing nature study with their children. I just finished reading another chapter in THE LAY OF THE LAND by another loved author on visiting the beaver pond on his land. This simple book has made the scene more visible in my mind's eye. The pictures by Roger Duvoisin are truly of a vintage style but they match the words of the story so well. I love this book. I used many of these types of books when raising my boys. I love to gather them again for the next generation.

[Liz E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best picture book on beavers I have read, and as a homeschoolers we have read several.