Luck (Outdoor Adventures) Hardcover – May 1, 2006

We purchased this book for a family with the last name of Luck. Of course, we read it before we gave it away. What a great story! This book is going to a family that has children from the ages of 9 to 3. I am quite certain that all of them can understand the message and will enjoy reading it over and over again.

Wonderful!

The illustrations by artist Wendell Minor are very special. I would be tempted to cut pages out of the book for framing.Author Jean Craighead George has a ton of work behind her, some quite recognizable. She tells the story of a migration of a sandhill crane from Texas all the way to Siberia. At the beginning of the book, a young girl takes a plastic six-pack ring from the bird. She names him Luck. The story follows Luck to Siberia where he spends the summer and finds a girl crane. They return to Texas, the cycle complete. It is a nice story, perhaps putting too much anthropomorphism into the bird brains for my taste. The reading level chosen by the author confuses me. The words are way too advanced for a beginning reader but the story format is geared to a younger child. A first reader would not be able to access the words and an older child would be better served by a more scientific and less fanciful treatment of the migratory journey. And I like page numbers on picture books for children. I think the page numbers give the youngsters an extra chance to learn their numbers along with the text of the book, practicing words and learning about bird migrations. Not kidding about the drawings. Very nice.