Article in: Book Reviews
Review of Oscar and Olive Osprey – A Family Takes Flight
Oscar and Olive Osprey: A Family Takes Flight
is the story of a family of Ospreys who nested off the shoreline of Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay. The story is told by Janie Suss, locally known as “Bird Woman”.
Janie erected a platform off her pier in the hopes of attracting an Osprey pair to nest. She was successful and her story recounts the lives of this pair, who she named Oscar and Olive.
The chapter book covers the lives of this Osprey pair from first building to the nest, to brooding three young, and all the difficulties that Ospreys encounter when raising young, hungry birds. Various challenges are recounted including encounters with a Great Blue Heron (Harriett), stormy weather, and the challenge of teaching young birds to fish and be on their own.
Oscar and Olive Osprey provides a great story for young naturalists who can learn about one of North America’s coolest birds. The story also encourages young readers to go out there and observe what the natural world has to offer.
“Bird Woman’s” story shows a parallel to how important families are even in the birding world. Even though the story is Anthropomorphic (that is, the birds are given human traits and emotions), it provides a great message while encouraging kids to observe birds. The author also promotes that families spend more time enjoying nature’s ongoing show instead of television, something we wholly agree with.
Recommended ages: 8 to 12
Disclosure: we were given a copy of this wonderful book by the publisher to review. However, we were not persuaded to say or do anything other than give an honest review, which we have.
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