Available:*
Library | Audience | Home Location | Material Type | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Central | Kid/Juvenile | Open Stacks Fiction | Open Stacks Kids Book | GEORG | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Houston History Research Center, Ideson Building | Kid/Juvenile | Norma Meldrum Juvenile Special Collection | Kids reference material | GEORG | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Author Notes
Jean Craighead George was born on July 2, 1919 in Washington, D.C. She received degrees in English and science from Pennsylvania State University. She began her career as a reporter for the International News Service. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps for The Washington Post.
During her lifetime, she wrote over 100 novels including My Side of the Mountain, which was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, On the Far Side of the Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, which won the Newbery Medal, Julie, and Julie's Wolf Pack. She also wrote two guides to cooking with wild foods and an autobiography entitled Journey Inward. In 1991, she became the first winner of the School Library Media Section of the New York Library Association's Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature. She died on May 15, 2012 at the age of 92.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
A babyish, off-base, tiresome story about a girl and her pet crow, which she must keep secret because her father and brothers shoot crows to protect their strawberry crop. Mandy names her baby crow Nina Terrance, learns the crows' warning cry to keep her safe, and to keep her dependent, continues to feed her after the crow would normally be feeding herself. Mandy's mother is in on her secret, and there is a period with the men off on a trip when Nina Terrance has the run of the house and the two humans have a flighty time feeding a group of crow visitors. In the same period the crow, who has learned to imitate human speech, gives a cute performance for TV cameras at the shopping mall. All this time Mandy is torn about allowing her pet to be lured off by the other crows: ""I'm all mixed up,"" she tells her ""Mommy"" more than once. ""I want her to go and yet I like her so much I want her to stay. It's so nice to have a friend."" But when it turns out to be Mandy's little brother who killed the crow's parents at the start, Mandy knows that she must shoot her pet to protect her brother from Nina Terrance's vengeful attacks. In addition to the sentimental plot and corny dialogue, there is an unpleasant minor episode in which Mandy's mother teaches her two Puerto Rican employees to have separate bank accounts from their husbands as enlightened women do. The story is full of similar well-meaning misses. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-7. Mandy adopts and raises an orphaned crow even though the birds are considered enemies of her family's Florida strawberry farm. In the process, she learns to decipher the communication between crows.
