Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream [Hardcover]

Robert Burleigh (Author), Wendell Minor (Illustrator)

Book Description

As a young man, John James Audubon, the renowned American woodsman and artist, had to make a choice between following his father's dreams for him and discovering his own special destiny. In this beautifully conceived book, Robert Burleigh imagines a conversation in which Audubon tells his father why he has chosen to forgo the ordinary life of a shop-keeper and instead live out in nature to develop his art and his relationship with the world. Illustrated not only with sumptuous images by Wendell Minor, but with actual drawings by Audubon himself, this book will appeal to his fans of all ages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Having previously written about Thoreau, Lindbergh and Babe Ruth, Burleigh continues his series of biographies of famous men in this poetic picture book about John James Audubon (1785-1851), sumptuously illustrated by Minor. The volume begins with advice to Audubon from his father: " `Be a store owner,' his father said./ But John went to the woods instead." As an author's note explains, what follows is Burleigh's imagined response, penned by Audubon in a letter to his father, in an ornate 19th-century style with rhymed couplets: "O father, dear Father, to me it seems/ No one can fail who holds to his dreams." The flow of the narrative parallels quotations from the naturalist's journals, just as Audubon's own paintings sometimes appear as spot art to mirror Minor's illustrations. Author and artist present Audubon as both idealistic and gentle, and though he doesn't "save every cent" as his father wants him to, he ends up "saving" in his artwork the disappearing world he observes ("And I must paint it all because/ We need this memory of what was"). His philosophy wafts through the volume like a summer breeze. Minor breathtakingly captures a landscape with a blue heron in the marsh as easily as a close-up of a dying dove, alongside a poem deft and sure. Nature-lovers and budding artists will want to know about this one. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5-This picture-book biography of one of America's best-known naturalists offers readers a real slice of Americana. It focuses on an imaginary letter that Audubon has written to his father in which he tries to explain why he has rejected urban life. The narrative clearly depicts the love and respect that he had for nature, and conveys the lure of the outdoors that Audubon found irresistible. The lyrical prose makes this volume a compelling read-aloud, and the excerpts from Audubon's journal lend authenticity to the text. Lush illustrations clearly depict the beauty of the landscape. Minor's paintings are complemented by several of Audubon's own drawings. This combination is visually effective, but it will be hard for children to determine the illustrator of each piece. Although Audubon's works are noted below the copyright information, the page numbers given don't seem to match up with the illustrations, making it difficult to identify his art in this unpaged book. Despite the problems, the pictures are lovely and the text is pleasant.
Robyn Walker, Elgin Court Public School, St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1 edition (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689830408
• ISBN-13: 978-0689830402
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,294,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lovely Tribute to the Father of American Bird Conservation, March 24, 2003

By 

Isabel Harding (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream (Hardcover)

This beautiful picture book is a real treat for any admirer, young or old, of nature and the work of John James Audubon. From first page to last, it is a tribute to an extraordinary man who had a passion for America's wilderness, as well as to the wilderness itself. Robert Burleigh tells the story of the pioneering environmentalist through an imaginary rhyming letter to his father, with accompanying excerpts from Audubon's journals. Wendell Minor, a renowned jacket artist and distinguished picture book illustrator, enlivens the text with some of his finest work, which is complemented by a few of Audubon's original paintings. Mr. Minor portrays the curious woodsman as he rambles through sun-dappled forests, investigates a cormorant's nest on the side of a rocky cliff, and admires the untamed spirit of a temporarily captive hawk. Later on, the story's tone changes from carefree revelry to a heartfelt plea for wilderness preservation, as Audubon mourns the loss of the woodlands and the birds he holds so dear. While holding a dying pigeon in his hands he remarks: "And as I watched it die I knew/The world I love is passing too. And I must paint it all because/We need this memory of what was. . ." These inspiring words are accompanied by some poignant pictures of a flock of now-extinct passenger pigeons--once the most populous bird in the world--streaming across the sky, and a once-mighty forest reduced to stumps. There is a hopeful note in the story, as well: "But listen, now, from every tree/I hear them calling out to me: The crow's ka-kow, the lark's ti-ti/The warbler and the chickadee." In order to preserve nature, we must first appreciate even the smallest aspects of it, from the the mighty bald eagle to the tiny chickadee. The book leaves one with a sense of hope about the conservation movement and a refreshed passion for the outdoors, especially birds, which are so plentiful and so striking in this country. With his paintings Mr. Minor has skillfully captured the personality of the man and the beauty of the birds he loved, and Mr. Burleigh has brought poetic words to help us remember Audubon not just as the vanguard in the American conservation movement, a mere icon of history books, but as a true woodsman who loved this country and its wilderness with his whole heart. INTO THE WOODS makes a lovely gift for any aspiring naturalist of age 8 to a lifelong birder of age 80. Pick up a copy for the child in your life and one for yourself. Also be sure to check out another new picture book, RACHEL: THE STORY OF RACHEL CARSON, which, like INTO THE WOODS, tells the story of a pioneering American environmentalist and is wonderfully illustrated by Wendell Minor.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Blend, November 9, 2011

By 

Ohioan - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream (Hardcover)

This picture book is a blend of forms and approaches, and all of them work exceptionally well. It is a blend of the writer's words and the illustrator's pictures, both of which bring to life John James Audubon, the wilderness, and birds. It is also a blend of Robert Burleigh's couplets (which tell the story of how Audubon went against his father's wishes that John be a store owner and became a naturalist instead) and Audubon's own words, as excerpted from his diaries. And, this book is a blend of the past and the present: readers can see the lush, untouched forests that Audubon trod and the now-extinct birds he drew and compare these things, if they wish, to the present, which contains so much less of the natural world. I say "if they wish," because this is not a preachy book in any way. It allows readers to look, to read, and to empathize. Highly recommended.