Flute's Journey: The Life of a Wood Thrush

As a fifth grade science teacher in Texas, one of our objectives is for students to understand the difference between learned and inherited behaviors. Flute's Journey accomplishes this goal beautifully. From the beautiful illustrations to the lyrical text, the students are drawn in to the life of a woodthrush. As I read the book to them, they were to write down in one column the learned traits they saw/heard, and the inherited traits in another. They were enthralled with the story, and were amazed at how many examples there were in this one book of each type of behavior. Even though this book is listed for the lower primary grades, I highly recommend it for any science class studying learned and instinctual behaviors.

When I began writing Flute's Journey, I was going to put Flute in the woods at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center where I was then artist-in-residence. However, an ornithologist friend said, "put Flute in the Belt Woods!" "What's the Belt woods?" I asked. She told me it was a forest that had been owned by Seton Belt and he had willed it to a church if they agreed to never cut the trees or sell the land. But after he died, the church had the will overturned and put the land up for sale to a developer for $9 million. It's a long story, but many children wrote letters to the bishop of the church asking that they respect Seton Belt's wishes and save the land. And, I'm convinced, that it was their letters that saved Flute's home, the Belt woods. Their letters, like the following one, came from the heart: "Seton Belt trusted you. How can you go against him?" Our campaign to save the woods was covered by CBS Morning News with Charles Osgood and they mentioned Flute's Journey and the children's letters. They asked me what kids could do. I said, "they can write to the church." And so many more letters were sent. Now Belt Woods is preserved forever. Children helped to save Flute's home and children, in many ways, can make a difference in the world. Lynne Cherry

It tells how hard the life of birds can be. I especially liked how it told about the cowbird who came and took one egg away because that tells the way cowbirds are. I liked how the children gaves names to the woodthrushes.

This is a beautiful book! It provides ecological information that a child can understand. It has a strong message and is entertaining as well as educational. It has beatiful watercolor paintings and a compelling storyline. Enjoyable for parents and children.