The Moon of the Chickarees (The Thirteen Moons) [Hardcover]

Jean Craighead George (Author), Don Rodell (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: The Thirteen Moons

Describes the activities of a mother red squirrel during the month of April as she nurtures her newborn babies in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-- In exploring the month of April in the life of an American red squirrel, George smoothly introduces many aspects of the chickaree, as it is also called: food, habitat, mating, growth, enemies. Other animals of the Bitterroot Valley of Montana are also briefly described. This revision covers the same information as the earlier book (Crowell, 1968; o.p.), but expands a few scenes. It repeatedly characterizes April as the ``moon of the rights of property owners,'' a strained and not always fitting metaphor. Acrylic color paintings, fewer in number and more static in style, have replaced the lively black-and-white drawings. The month of June is the ``moon of growing up'' for young foxes in the second readable, sometimes poetic, book. The lively text follows five pups as their parents teach them to fend for themselves in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania. It also introduces briefly other flora and fauna. The text from the 1968 edition (Crowell; o.p.) has been altered stylistically but not substantively. Detailed full-color paintings have replaced soft black-and-white sketches. Increased white space makes both versions more attractive; also useful are the added indexes and bibliographies. Attractive, but not necessary purchases for libraries that have the previous editions. --Kathleen Odean, Moses Brown School, Providence, RI
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books; Revised edition (April 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060225076
• ISBN-13: 978-0060225070
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written over 100 books.Her book, Julie of the Wolves won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, l973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.She attended Penn State University graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home and to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists and Twig writes children's books, too.One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack.She is still traveling and coming home to write. In the last decade she has added two beautiful new dimensions to her words beautiful full-color picture book art by Wendell Minor and others and - music. Jean is collaborating with award-winning composer, Chris Kubie to bring the sounds of nature to her words.