The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon

This biographical portrait of John James Audubon covers the years just after he came to America and his earliest experience with bird banding. It emphasizes his enthusiasm and his inventiveness and hints at his underlying motivation to achieve something that the rest of the scientific community did not believe for his father. My favorite part was finding out where most scientists of his day believed birds went during the winter months rather than flying to warmer places. Underwater? Morph into other animals? How could they think that? Didn't they ever look up at the sky and see all the birds pumping their wings in the same general direction. Scientists must have been really lazy back then. Or just plain dimwitted. Or maybe they had show more really vivid hallucinations. show less

First, I liked this book because within the first couple of pages gender norms are broken down. The author notes the VARIOUS activities he liked to do. It just so happened watching birds was his favorite which later a family member labels "strange for a boy his age." Pshhh nonsense and look where his curiosity landed him!! Audobon's story not only tells of his brilliant science discovery of bird migration or expresses his creativity and skill in the arts, but this book reminds children to be confident in their interests. If you like something- own it and go for it!
The illustrations of this book are magnificent as well and made me feel like I was in Audubon's musee.

"'I will bring my books to the cave,' John James decided. 'And my pencils and paper. I will even bring my flute. I will study my cave birds every day. I will draw them just as they are.' And because he was a boy who loved the out-of-doors more than the in, that is just what he did."

What a treasure for those of us who love the out-of-doors more than the in. Davies book reads like an engaging story rather than a biography or history lesson, which it is. Audubon was supposed to be in America tending a farm and learning how to make money (though his father also wanted him out of the way of Napoleon's war). Setting out to prove what that small birds migrate rather than hibernate in large groups underwater or fly to the moon and back, to show more proposed theories at the time, Audubon uses patience, keen observation, and an ingenious plan to find some answers that make sense. What I love about this book, as well as books about Darwin and Muir, is that it is a story about passion, about someone who can't do anything but study birds, even if it made sense to few others in the world at that time. A wonderful subject for children and adults. show less

Nice biography to introduce children to Audubon.

It does briefly include flirting as a skill he has so maybe be ready to explain that.

A really nice book illustrating how special interests can be a life’s work. Suitable for celebrating special interests.

A creatively illustrated and informative story about how John James Audubon came to discover the innovation of tagging birds. I really like how the book conveys his passion and fervor for observing birds and how his collections and observations can possibly serve as a model for students to start their own scientific collections. The illustrations are also so creative and beautiful.

Bursting with extraordinary illustrations, The Boy Who Drew Birds is a fascinating tribute to the life of John James Audubon. Early on, John James Audubon developed a passion for studying birds with his father in France. After moving to America, his passion burgeoned with the questions, “Where do small birds go in the winter? Do the same birds come back to the same nests each spring?” An appealing attribute of this book is the testimony of an interest leading to a career, which is a great message for young readers. It’s intriguing to see how simply putting a band around a bird could lead to proving such a complex theory. This book could be great when learning about birds, migration, or pursuing passions.

There are two main reasons why I like this book. First of all, I enjoyed the illustrations in the book. All of the illustrations were very well designed and provided a great visual for the story. This was very important because this biography was about a man in the colonial times. Since it was based on someone so far in the past, the illustrations helped the reader visualize the setting and the characters.
Another reason why I liked this book was because of the plot. I love how a biography book left suspense for the reader. As I was reading this book I became more and more curious to see if John James Audubon's hypothesis about birds were correct. In the text, John was wondering several questions like "Are these the same birds who built show more the nest last year? Where did they spend the winter? Will they return next spring?" These questions began my curiosity for his experiment. These questions were later answered but I like how the curiosity of the reader did not stop. He then wondered, "Where were last year's babies now grown? Had they returned too?" These questions were later answered as well. The end of the book was very interesting because the reader learned that John was known for making this discovery. show less