Beaver Year - Hardcover

Irene Brady

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0354080032 ISBN 13: 9780354080033

Publisher: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976

Synopsis

As the two new-born beaver kits Cassie and Paddle enter the world, they are welcomed by their mother's soft crooning and gentle grooming. Confined at first to the inside of the lodge, it isn't long before they are exploring the underwater tunnels and deep waters of the beaver pond.

The kits' instincts take hold as they follow their parents' example, helping to collect and store food, repair the dam and recognize the warning signs for danger.

When heavy spring rains destroy their lodge and dam, Cassie and Paddle are on their own, for trapped by the rising waters they are carried from their home and family – thrust out into the wide world to begin their own new beaver colony.

The book links the young beavers to the pulsing throb of the surrounding pond and forest in a gentle story of beaver life in the wilderness.

In this delightful book, Irene Brady sensitively tells the story of the life cycle of the beaver, from birth to the giving of birth, through evocative text and delicate, appealing illustrations. In order that both be true-to-life, the author/artist spent countless hours through a whole year observing, sketching and journaling at beaver ponds.

About this title

From the Publisher:

It isn't easy to find a book about beavers that doesn't turn them into cute little humans in fur coats.

Irene Brady has managed to bring a real flesh-and-blood family of beavers and their life in the pond and mud-and-stick den to life in a way endears these wild animals to us without getting sticky-sweet. Along the way, she also provides a great deal of information on how beavers build their marvelous dams and lodges, groom their fur, play in their watery home, and give danger warnings that any animals near the pond can hear and understand.

Cassie and Paddle, (the names are the only anthropomorphic thing about these two young beavers, and makes their adventures more personal to children) have a fascinating life. With them, the reader understands their stark fear as a winter-starved wolverine tries to pull the lodge down, snuffling his stinking breath down through the lodge's air hole. And when the flood washes out the dam and sends Cassie and Paddle whirling off to their destiny, even adults may find themselves white-knuckled with apprehension.

The illustrations are soft and cuddly, but accurate nevertheless -- the underwater scenes are a wonder of wet illusion, with shimmering sparkles, startled newts and water-slick coats.

With a masterful touch, Irene Brady shares the secret world of nature with eager young readers in an unforgettable way.

From the Author:

Beaver Year was my first attempt at portraying the underwater world, and it was a big challenge for me. But it was a lot of fun, too. I'll never forget the hours spent quietly watching beavers working on their dams as I filled my journals with sketches and notes; and the time I tried to swim up an entry tunnel into a lodge and nearly got stuck. And the afternoons floating face down in the pond with a mask and snorkel, absorbing the way light shimmers underwater and getting insight into the lifeways of newts and trout in a remote beaver pond. The experiences were priceless, and they ended up in the writing and illustrations I later did in my studio.

I hope young readers will come to know Cassie and Paddle, and appreciate the natural perils and joys of a beaver's -- and understand, by the time they're grown and have decisions to make, that wildlife must be protected at all costs, even if it makes life difficult for humans.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton-Mifflin
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0354080032
• ISBN 13: 9780354080033
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48