Beaver Year

Is it possible for a human being to live in a beaver lodge? One can almost believe that Irene Brady spent a year - or a lifetime - living with this little group. She became a beloved aunt, an integral part of the extended family. She sat in her own spot on the platform in the lodge, writing the story and sketching pictures of the charming and intimate beaver drama unfolding around her. You can almost see her venturing out to fell a small tree and helping to build and repair the dam. You can imagine her chewing aspen leaves for dinner, helping to settle sibling squabbles, baby-sitting on occasion, grooming and cuddling tired kits at the end of a playful and industrious day. And observing, always observing, and recording with the careful eye of a scientific artist and a meticulous writer who loves her subjects. She didn't live with them, of course, but somehow she catches the essence of their lives and shares it with her readers in such a way that they all, children and adults, can spend a magic season in the beaver lodge, joining in their good times and their bad. Days of industry, moments of fear when predators loom, disaster when a flood strikes, and renewal as kits grow up and start their own families. A book to own, to treasure!