Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream

It was not until recently when I realized that I thoroughly enjoy biographies where the person of interest lives out his or her dream and is successful in doing so. Although, this seems like a theme that is strereotypical of fictional literature and its heroes, it is the nonfictional tales of the human spirit that I find to be the most rewarding reads.

Robert Burleigh's book was just as gratifying. Besides the conventional biographical information Burleigh conveys about John James Audubon, I think the author makes a point to share with readers Audubon's determination to fulfill his dreams and passionate love for nature. This is most evident through Burleigh's use of poetry to supplement the primary source text. The poetry helps to show more immerse readers into Audubon's world, as with each line readers get a sense of explorer's feelings and intentions while experiencing nature.

Wendell Minor's illustrations compliment Burleigh's text extraordinarily well. I feel that Minor's intentions were to give readers a sense of Audubon's perspective of nature. Each picture is beautifully drawn and takes into account how the explorer may have actually experienced the scenes he describes through his journal entries.

The only qualms I had with the book stem from the stereotypical view I have of biographies. Though this book does a great job of giving readers a brief summary of Audubon's life and fulfilment of his dream, it does not attempt to be very accurate nor is it highly informative in terms of other aspects of the explorer's life. In contrast with another biography of Audubon's life, Burleigh's book would perhaps benefit from a map following Audubon's travels or greater details about his personal life.

On the other hand, this book is primarily concerned with sharing Audubon's dream with readers, and does an excellent job doing just that.

As I have already done in a practice lesson, I would use this book in an upper grade English classroom as an example of the successful use of poetic voice to convey ninfictional information. In lower grades, I can see this book being paired with other books about Audubon to produce multiple lessons on nature, poetry, exploration, and/or nonfiction. show less

I had mixed feelings about this book. I really liked it for one reason, but then the other part really drew me back from enjoying it. I really liked how the author used two ways to describe and explain John James Audubon. The author first wrote the story about John James Audubon and his dreams and then underneath each story excerpt was a little part of a journal entry written by John. This may not be his actual journal writings, but the author put it in script handwriting and it gave readers the chance to see how Audubon was feeling and what he was thinking about during certain moments in his life. I didn’t really like the story aspect of this book. It didn’t really teach me much about John James Audubon, it only described his dream show more and how he was trying to gain acceptance from his father. The story was also told in rhymes which I didn’t deem appropriate for a biography. This definitely would make it more appealing for readers to want to read, but I didn’t find it helpful in learning anything about the man. The main message of this story would be to explain John James Audubon’s dreams to readers. show less

A short heartfelt desecration of Audubon's work in sentimental verse and pretty pictures. The clear eyed respect for his subject that shines from Audubon's drawings is nowhere in this bit of fluff.

The art by Minor tells more of the story than the text by Burleigh, I think. It's gorgeous. I think it's rather a shame it overwhelms the samples of Audubon's own work; I hope readers are inspired to look for more of those classic works. I definitely appreciated the sample of text from Audubon's journals... but it's a shame they were in a script my old eyes couldn't quite make out completely.

In any case, this book beautifully captures the essence of the man and his lifework, but it's not a real biography with enough detail for a school report or such. However, I do recommend it.

This short picturebook uses rhyming couplets together with excerpts from his journals to tell a bit of the life of John James Audubon. Aimed at younger children, this book is beautifully illustrated with original paintings as well as reprints of some of Audubon's paintings. The book seems very accurate and even addresses some issues such as Audubon shooting birds he painted in the author's end notes. I think this might be a good introduction to Audubon for younger kids, and might be useful as the beginning of a unit on his life.

I did not know that John Audubon was an artist, I had a clue that he was related to animals some kind of way because of the name of our zoo here in NOLA. I also did not realize he took interest in birds either. Interesting fact that I learned about him. This book was written in poetry form, but a letter to his father. It was really beautiful. I did find that students may have trouble reading this book because it does have script writing in it, that really was a factor I think I would have to address if I had this in my classroom library or using it with in a lesson.

I picked up this lovely book at Mill Creek, the former home of John James Audubon in Pennsylvania. I bought it hoping that my son would enjoy it, and he definitely did. The book has gorgeous illustrations of Audubon pictured in various natural settings, with a poem that runs through the book telling about these adventures. Each page also features a quotation from Audubon himself. It's a beautiful book for children, and even though it's probably aimed a children a bit younger than my son (he's 9), he really enjoyed it.