Artist
and avid ornithologist, Matt Sewell, has
built a brand writing and distinctively illustrating informative, yet
accessibly appealing books about birds. In Our
Garden Birds and Our
Songbirds, he presented two volumes, each exploring 52 favorite species
from England—one bird for each week of the year. In Owls:
Our Most Charming Bird, Sewell
branches out beyond Great Britain and offers a world-wide compendium of various
owls: multi-faceted, nocturnal birds of prey. Watercolors rendered in Pop-Art
style and concise, lively prose highlight the individuality of 50 different
species of owls that are indigenous to diverse regions of the world.
Sewell explores Woodland varieties like the
Northern Saw-whet Owl--native to North America--which is
"smaller-than-a-blackbird and fluffier-than-a-three-week-old
Labrador" and has "pleading, puppy-dog eyes" etched with a
permanent look of surprise. The Great Gray Owl, with a head like a
"geodesic dome inhabited by a bunch of strung-out hippies," is
considered a Wilderness variety that is a stealthy hunter built to survive in
northern, glacial environments. The Elf Owl is one of the smallest that loves
cacti and inhabits Wild West deserts of the USA and Mexico. While the Crested
Owl is indigenous to tropical Central and South American climates and has
eyebrows that appear like "incredible appendages" that serve to aid
his camouflage efforts when pretending to be a branch.
This playful,
well-conceived collection enhances--and also shatters--myths and folklores
surrounding these "all-seeing, all-knowing" mysterious and imperious
bird-hunters and proves fiercely entertaining and enriching in the process.
Publication Date: September 22, 2015
Note: This review is a reprint and is being
posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this
review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (10/2/15),
link HERE