Children's Nonfiction Animal Welfare
An Owl at Sea
- Publisher
- Groundwood Books Ltd
- Initial publish date
- May 2019
- Category
- Animal Welfare, Zoology, Birds
- Recommended Age
- 6 to 9
- Recommended Grade
- 1 to 4
- Recommended Reading age
- 6 to 9
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781773061115
- Publish Date
- May 2019
- List Price
- $19.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781773063102
- Publish Date
- May 2019
- List Price
- $16.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
The extraordinary, true story of an owl stranded on the deck of an oil rig one hundred miles from shore, and the Good Samaritans who shepherded it home.
This is the true story of a Short-eared Owl that plummeted onto the deck of an oil rig in the North Sea, one hundred miles from shore. Weak and tired, it huddled on the deck until riggers provided it with a makeshift shelter and fresh meat to eat. When a helicopter arrived to transport some of the workers back home, they took the owl with them, handing it over to the Scottish SPCA. A few weeks later the owl was strong enough to be released into the countryside.
Susan Vande Griek’s gentle prose poem describes this unusual encounter with a creature from the wild with curiosity and wonder. Ian Wallace’s stunning watercolors show gorgeous seascapes, the subtle beauty of the owl, and the oil rig and its workers, creating compelling visual contrasts.
An author’s note includes information about the Short-eared Owl, a bird found in the Americas, Europe and Asia, whose numbers may be in decline due to loss of habitat.
Key Text Features
author’s note
further reading
sources
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4
Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.5
Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.4
Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.7
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
About the authors
Susan Vande Griek is the author of several children’s books. Her non-fiction picture book Loon, illustrated by Karen Reczuch, was named a USBBY Outstanding International Book and won the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction and the Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award. Susan has also written the acclaimed middle-grade novel A Gift for Ampato and a picture-book biography of Emily Carr, The Art Room, illustrated by Pascal Milelli, which won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award.
She divides her time between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
Susan Vande Griek's profile page
Ian Wallace has had a distinguished career as an author and illustrator of picture books, publishing many classics such as Chin Chiang and the Dragon’s Dance, Boy of the Deeps and The Huron Carol. His visual interpretation of Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot received three starred reviews and was named a USBBY Outstanding International Book and a Resource Links’ Year’s Best. He has won the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. He has also been nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Ian lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife, Deb.
Editorial Reviews
A quietly engaging picture book.
Booklist
This home-away-home story takes flight with its poetic text and a few extraordinary seascape illustrations.
Kirkus Reviews
