The Wentletrap Trap

Here is another winner from children's greatest nature writer of today, Jean Craighead George. The author of over eighty books about the environment, including JULIE OF THE WOLVES, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, THE ONE DAY. . .series, and HOW TO TALK TO YOUR DOG, Ms. George did a great writing job with this picture book of 1978. It's the story of Dennis, a young boy who lives on an island and who is anxious to be a grown man like his father, a fisherman. When his father tells him that he will come a little closer to this aspiration by buying all the things he needs to make a living out of fishing--a boat, a grapple, a net, and a bucket--Dennis asks him just how he will get the money for such things. His father tells him to find a wentletrap, a rare seashell of the greatest beauty and wealth. So, while his father is out at sea, Dennis makes a wentletrap trap, using everyday objects to capture a wentletrap when it is washed up on the beach. In the end Dennis finds lots of things besides a remarkable wentletrap--some of them beautiful, some of them alive, but each one wonderful in its own subtle way. Ms. George's fondness for even the smallest things in nature is apparent in this book. The pictures are as distinct and handsome as a wentletrap, lively and interesting. The lyrical storytelling--active and wise the whole way through--and the humorous illustrations combine to make an excellent picture book.