The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow

Written and illustrated by Jan Thornhill

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-006-4

44 pp.

Ages 9-12

April 2018

If Jan Thornhill's winning of the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award last fall for The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk (Groundwood, 2016) and Jess Keating's winning of the Blue Spruce award this week for Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2017) tell us anything, it is that picture books are as beloved for telling non-fiction as they are for entertaining young readers. With her newest, The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow, Jan Thornhill again tells a compelling story of natural history which informs as well as entices us to learn more.

Jan Thornhill's story of the small brown bird which lacks flamboyance but teems with adaptability is a tale of survival, unlike that of the bird of her earlier book, The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk. She begins by telling of the House Sparrow's Middle Eastern ancestor beginning to rely on grain as a food source and losing the need for migration. With the spread of agriculture, the House Sparrow was soon designated a pest for raiding fields and orchards and breeding far too quickly, aiding in its spread. The small bird became such a nuisance that bounties and laws were enacted to speed its elimination.

From The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill

But migrating Europeans saw the House Sparrow as a resourceful reminder of home, and the bird was introduced to New York City in the 1800s and then across the country, multiplying far more than expected. Again the exploding population of House Sparrows coupled with its aggressive pursuit of grain pitted the House Sparrow lovers and haters against each other.

From The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill

However, it is the actions of humans which have had the most impact on the House Sparrow, though not always intentionally. With the onset of the automobile and the decline of horses, fed with grain, the House Sparrow's populations began to diminish again, and perhaps more so because of changes we've implemented in home construction, in farming, in keeping cats as pets and even in how we eat. Whether these impacts alone explain the decline of the House Sparrow is not known completely. But, it is certain that as much as the little bird may be an omen of our negative impact on the environment, it continues to find ways to adapt and survive.

The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow may tell the bird's story of proliferation and decline as an piece of non-fiction, supplemented with  a map of the bird's global distribution, an illustrated life cycle and a glossary, but it's Jan Thornhill's telling of that story that is the most compelling. Told as a narrative and strengthened by Jan Thornhill's realistic illustrations, The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow gives us lessons in ecology and adaptation, in history and in the impact of humans on the environment, and will be a valuable addition to science classrooms and school libraries everywhere.

From The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill

The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk

by Jan Thornhill

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-865-5

44 pp.

Ages 8-11

October 2016

The story of the Great Auk, a bird of unique anatomy and behaviour, is truly a tragic one, and Jan Thornhill takes great care to ensure the details of that tragedy are thorough, though never explicit, and the basis for some ecological contemplation.

The Great Auk, which inhabited areas of the North Atlantic including Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia and Newfoundland, was a part of the history of Stone Age humans, the Vikings, the Inuit and the Beothuk, and then that of the Europeans who arrived on North American shores.  The bird was a magnificent bird in size and structure, a lethal fisher spending 10 months of the year in the water.  But, its downfall–or at least a couple factors contributing to it–was advanced by the bird’s inability to fly and its clumsiness on the land upon which their eggs were laid.  Though they laid their eggs in highly-inaccessible areas in order to afford them some protection, humans found ways to reach them and exploit them.

Though the various cultures came to kill the birds for meat, some respectfully ensured that the rest of the animal was not wasted, instead used for clothing, oil, tools, and weapons.  But once the Europeans arrived in North America, the slaughter of the Great Auk went beyond just meeting their needs to survive.  The disappearance of the Great Auk from Funk Island, off the coast of Newfoundland, may have been the canary in the mine shaft but it just encouraged the continued exploration for and exploitation of Great Auks and their eggs for museum and private collections.

From The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk

by Jan Thornhill

Yet in this historical and natural history story, Jan Thornhill who excels at comprehensive but accessible non-fiction for middle-grade readers (e.g., I Found a Dead Bird, Maple Tree Press, 2006; This is My Planet: The Kids’ Guide to Global Warming, Maple Tree Press, 2007; Who Wants Pizza?: The kids’ guide to the history, science and culture of food, Maple Tree Press, 2010) the story of the Great Auk is told with insight and hindsight.  The bird’s own nature limited its ability to adapt and escape humans as predators but the role of humans in the Great Auk’s extinction is sadly obvious.  Still Jan Thornhill, whose illustrations of the bird in various natural situations and a few unnatural ones depict the Great Auk’s former glory and reality, makes a point to note the bird’s extinction in allowing other species, such as the Puffin, to flourish where it once could not.  Sometimes, though not always, there is a silvery lining to a story of extinction.

The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk will be a useful text for talking history, birds, ecology, human interference and so much more–the addenda are very informative–and for opening discussions to help young people address their own role in the natural world and ensuring that world's endurance without our manipulation of it into a sorry state of irreversible destruction.

Kyle Goes Alone

by Jan Thornhill

Illustrated by Ashley Barron

Owlkids

978-1-77147-075-9

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

August, 2015

Kyle is a three-toed sloth and he’s used to his mother taking him down from the top of the rainforest canopy all the way down to the ground for his once a week toileting.  But his mom decides that he’s old enough to go alone.

“You can do it, “ said his mom.
“I’ll be right here if you need me.”

And slowly, the way sloths always move, Kyle makes his way down , always wondering if he should turn back.  Except he really has to go.  And, even though he can’t always see her, she’s watching him from between the leaves, reassuring him that he’s doing well.

But, Kyle looks around and feels alone in that ominous way that only a child who has always clung to his mother can feel.  “But I’m all alone!” cried Kyle, repeatedly, and surprisingly he is always answered with, “No, you’re not.”  First, it’s a beautiful red-speckled parrot.  Then, further down, it’s a green and yellow whipsnake, and then a tiger-legged monkey tree frog and a leaf-cutting ant.  By the time he reaches the bottom and “goes”, Kyle is smiling, proud of himself for what he has accomplished.  And finds out his mother is still there for him when he needs her, regardless of the fact that Kyle Goes Alone now.

If this was a YA book, it would be considered a coming-of-age story because that’s what it is for Kyle: he’s coming of an age when he needs to become independent of his mother.  It just happens that this independence is related to toileting!  And there’s lots to learn about it from Jan Thornhill, whose wealth of non-fiction attests to her scientific knowledge.  So in addition to this charming story that parents will want to share with their children, especially those who are being toilet-trained, Jan Thornhill provides “The Poop about Three-toed Sloths” as well as about “Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight.”  Read, learn, enjoy.

But wait until you take in Ashely Barron’s breath-taking paper-collage illustrations that pop from the page.  I am red-faced that I’d missed including this talented artist in my posts about youngCanLit illustrators. Her ability to create textured rainforests and colourful creatures from cut-paper is astounding.  If you check out Ashley Barron's blog at https://ashleybarron.wordpress.com, you can watch her create Kyle.  While her workmanship is astonishing, her choice and creation of colourful papers is just as dazzling.  You'll see Kyle’s expresssion change from fearful grimaces to proud grins as he travels down the tree, but so too do the colours of the landscape change from the cool colours of fear to the sun-dappled greens and turquoises of hope and success.

Kyle Goes Alone is an triumph of storytelling, blending scientific non-fiction, collage artistry and sloth-pooping, thanks to Jan Thornhill, Ashley Barron and, of course, Kyle.

Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change

by Jan Thornhill

Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Owlkids

978-1-77147-002-5

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

October, 2014

Sure, reviewing a book called Winter's Coming before winter would have been more logical–hence Owlkids' October release for the book–but isn't it just as great to read a book about the changes that come with winter while in the throes of that season's cold and snow?  (Apparently I thought so.)

Lily, a young snowshoe hare, is surprised by the changes she sees in her surroundings, which she'd always enjoyed as green.  Now there are colour changes in the trees and massive flocks of birds heading south because Winter's coming.  If they have to escape, she wonders whether she should be evading this danger as well.  Luckily the squirrel who is preparing a cache of food tells her she won't need to do the same, and Lily is relieved to know that, "Whatever Winter was, at least it wasn't interested in her food." (pg. 9) Also inquiring of the chickadee, mosquito, tree frog, caterpillar, snapping turtle and black bear, Lily still finds Winter a mysterious entity.  

Would it be as tall as the trees and have humongous, smelly feet?  Or would it be stretched out like a weasel, with a hundred pointed teeth?  Would it have a bald head like a turkey vulture?  Or would it have hair so long that it swished along the ground?  Would it make noise like thunder? Or would it fly on silent wings like an owl?  Lily had no idea, but she was convinced that Winter would be big and powerful. (pg. 20)

It's not until she watches Winter arrive and the black bear points out Lily's own change for winter that Lily understands what all the animals have being sharing with her.

Winter's Coming is as charming a book as it is educational, explaining animal adaptations to the coming of our coldest season as seen by a young snowshoe hare who doesn't know what to expect having never experienced winter.  Lily is inquisitive, but never precocious (thank you, Jan Thornhill!), always taking in what she sees and hears and tries to make connections with what she knows already.  She's on guard for potential threats, as a wise hare will be, but insightful and thinking beyond Winter as a predator.  Her thinking is probably similar to that of a child for whom a new concept, whether it be math or behavioural or whatever, is just out of reach of understanding.

Complemented by Josée Bisaillon's collage illustrations that emulate the bits and pieces of the natural world as it changes in response to the coming season, Jan Thornhill's newest nature book (she has an astounding repertoire of award-winning non-fiction) will be enjoyed just as easily as a story as much as an information book.  Winter's Coming will be an worthy addition to any library, personal, school or public.