Customer Reviews

When Agnes Caws

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My daughter chose this book for the beautiful pictures, but we found a fun and enriching story. The mother/daughter teamwork is a rewarding part of the story.

My daughter and I read this book nearly every night. It's a wonderful story about a mom and her daughter, bird lovers both, a story about exploration, courage, and doing what's right because it's the right thing to do. The illustrations are captivating. And dust off your vocal cords, because you'll be singing like a bird before you turn the last page.

My two-year old selected this at the library last week and I was put off a bit initially by the fact that it looked too sophisticated for her, but she LOVES this book and asks to be read it several times each day. It is a story that can be appreciated at many levels and ages--the creative illustrations are full of detail and character; there are lots of interesting facts about birds provided, the plot is fairly simple, yet much of the language and humor is highly sophisticated. What I appreciate too is that this is a positive story about a mother and daughter team studying and protecting the natural world. I would also note that there are some minor inaccuracies regarding ecology and bird behavior (e.g., wrong vegetation is shown associated with African savannah)--but only a purist would quibble with that.

I am very glad we came across this book, and I would strongly recommend it for budding female (and male) naturalists.

In When Agnes Caws, you can learn about different birds you never heard of (like the Pink headed Duck) before and how they sound. I would call this book a great one.

This is the story of Agnes Peregrine, whose mother is a well-known bird expert. From a very young age Agnes is able to exactly imitate the calls of many birds. One day she and her mother go to find the rare, elusive pink-headed duck. At the same time, the evil villain, Colonel Edwin Pittsnap, decides he doesn't have enough bird trophies in his collection: he wants to capture the pink-headed duck. Pittsnap decides to secretly follow Agnes and her mother, and when Agnes calls forth the pink-headed duck, he captures it in a net. Agnes, however, finds a way to make the villain release the duck. This is a humorous story about the difference between loving natural things and trying to own them. It's one drawback is that it's a bit predictable.

A nice book for nature lovers (especially birds) for parents to read to their children. A good message!

Put it this way, I had to reread this story to even remember what it was about and even then it was a little confusing to the child I read it to. The pictures are great, as are all her illustrations. The story is just so-so and doesn't really make much of a statement or an impression.