John L. George (1916–1999)

Dipper of Copper Creek is a short, sweet and simple book about a summer in the life of a pair of water ouzels (dippers) living in the mountain streams of the Rockies. Its aimed at older children; the birds have names but they don't speak or think anything outside of the realm of realistic bird thoughts (mainly food and safety.) It has the tone of a nature documentary, in fact, it reminded me of the Audobon Society films I used to be taken to see as a child. Paralleled to the world of the birds and other animals on the mountain is the story of a boy coming to spend the summer with his prospector grandfather. If you like old-fashioned nature stories and are familar with George's other works, this is highly recommended.… (mehr)

Jean Craighead is well known for her books ; My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves, but no one should forget about her first book Vulpes, the Red Fox.

Vulpes is the "smartest pup out of the litter" and enjoys out-thinking the local farmers and their dogs

A great fox story for fox lovers, easy for kids to read and understand. Even the topic of death is lightly touched. The only thing that I didn't like about this book was the pages just dedicated to the farmers, hunters and trappers. I could understand that having the humans talking about the fox can add to his story but more then half of the conversations have almost nothing to do with Vulpes or the plot.… (mehr)

"Vulpes played his part in this activity. Each was intent on securing his own food or prey. This was the normal cycle of the wild. Hunters and hunted, food or prey. Some must perish that others might live. Some found food in plants. The carnivores lived upon the herbivores; and so the cycle went on. Those best able to cope with the world they lived in and satisfy their simple demands, survived.
"For the present, Vulpes was the hunter; perhaps in the morning he would become the hunted."
Kindle location 1642-1646

"A heavy blanket of snow dampened all sounds. No leaves were free to rattle across the woodland floor. The snow lay on the tangled mats of the dormant honeysuckle and weighed the vines down. The thick white cloak made grotesque figures that stood motionless on the woodland floor. Black pools of water at the foot of snow-rimmed falls in the tiny streams heightened the effect of the ghost-like forest. This was the woodland of the wild. So unlike the same woodlot during the day. When the protection of the vale of darkness hung over it, the wild creatures of the woods came out from their hiding places to carry on their life. At night the woods became a primeval forest."
Kindle location 1649-1655… (mehr)