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CHASING THE GHOST BIRDS

Name: CHASING THE GHOST BIRDS
Author: David Sakrison
ISBN: 978-0-9792799-0-4

SAVING SWANS AND CRANES FROM EXTINCTION

by David Sakrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2007

A solid, thoroughgoing and affecting work, and an estimable addition to avian history. (b&w photographs; eight-page...

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Sakrison documents the work of three important swan- and crane-conservation projects.

Until very recently, trumpeter swans and whooping cranes stood at extinction’s door; Siberian cranes do so today. Despite humans having revered the birds for eons–for their size and fidelity and crazy-wild soft-shoe–they also hunted the birds mercilessly (for such products as feathered hats and powder puffs) and methodically, if cluelessly, went about destroying their habitats, not just by altering the terrain, but by filling it with lead from errant shots. Starting about 25 years ago, a dedicated band of swan and crane enthusiasts began toiling long and hard to increase the wild populations of swans and cranes. Sakrison chronicles the field days of projects reintroducing trumpeter swans to the Midwest and whooping cranes to the Eastern United States, and efforts underway to protect the critically threatened Siberian crane in Russia. He presents these stories as old-fashioned, yeomanly campfire tales, investing them with gradually increasing drama, meanwhile providing significant historical information as well as strange incidentals, as in the image of a fieldworker, decked out in a flowing white crane-mimicking burka, using a hand puppet to teach a chick to forage. He draws intelligent and sympathetic portraits of the players, makes skirmishes into the ornithological literature that lay readers will understand and appreciate, and serves up the nit and grit of fieldwork and the logistics of the recovery efforts without throwing sand in the reader’s eyes. He wisely avoids bringing on the stringed music when chronicling the inspiring moments, such as ultra-lights guiding young cranes on their first migrations; the simple description is wonderfully cheering. Perhaps most impressively, Sakrison succeeds in conveying the empathy, patience and dedication of the recovery-team members, taking to their roles as teachers and parents as veritably as if they had feathers of their own.

A solid, thoroughgoing and affecting work, and an estimable addition to avian history. (b&w photographs; eight-page color insert)

Pub Date: March 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-9792799-0-4

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.