Beaver Year - Hardcover

Brady, Irene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395242088 ISBN 13: 9780395242087

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1976

Synopsis

Follows two beaver kits through the first two years of their lives, from their late-May birth to the building of a new dam

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 Harcourt
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0395242088
• ISBN 13: 9780395242087
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40