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WILD GEESE CALLING by Robert Murphy

WILD GEESE CALLING

By

Pub Date: Aug. 15th, 1966
Publisher: Dutton

The author of The Golden Eagle and The Peregrine Falcon brings his strong plea for the care and protection of wildlife to the juvenile level. The winner of the Dutton Junior Animal Book Award, this book follows the migrational flight of a pair of Canada geese after their winter at the Aransas Refuge in Texas. Their wedge-shaped procession eventually leads them to a preserve in North Dakota, where the couple finds a suitable nesting place. The migration is very well described, with some well-chosen incidents to bring out the pattern of reactions and habits of the geese. Facts about the geese and other wildlife are well distributed within the story. On the return trip, the gander is shot and wounded, but the hunter's son refuses to let him kill the bird and takes it home. After it has been nursed back to health, the lonely boy refuses to recognize that the bird needs its freedom until at last he witnesses the gander's agony when his female returns. Although the boy's misery at having to let loose the bird he loved is touching, the people are not handled as well as the birds and the situation seems somewhat superficial. The book is, however, one of the better examples of this theme, which is popular with selectors for this age group.