Build, Beaver, Build!: Life at the Longest Beaver Dam

by Sandra Markle, Deborah Hocking (Illustrator)

Overview

The first year of a beaver kit's life is full of new discoveries and dangers. But the most important lesson the kit learns is how to take care of his family's home. The lodge where he lives is protected by a long dam that many beavers have worked to build over the years. As the kit grows up, he helps repair and add to the family dam—and begins to build a life for himself.

Set at what is believed to be the world's longest beaver dam, Build, Beaver, Build—by award-winning author Sandra Markle—provides a glimpse of beaver life, seen through the eyes of one young beaver and his family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512407365
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	44
File size:	54 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Deborah Hocking was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. In college she studied painting, illustration, graphic design, and Spanish. Her heart lies in forest exploration, mountain lake swimming, and bramble fort building. Build, Beaver, Build! is her first picture book.

Editorial Reviews

"One June night, a 'softball-sized' beaver kit is swimming across the pond to his mother when an owl swoops down toward him. The three-week-old kit dives, paddling underwater into the entrance tunnel to his family's lodge. As he and his sisters grow up, they learn to gather sticks, repair the lodge and dam, defend themselves against predators, and add to the family's winter food supply, stored near the lodge entrances. The following spring, they become 'babysitters in training' as well as dam builders, preparing them to raise their own families someday. A nip from a Canada goose and a narrow escape from a coyote add additional drama to the young beaver's story, but the information in Markle's simply written text is pretty engaging in itself. Nicely composed, the lively illustrations include many night scenes. One very effective picture shows a cross-section of the beaver lodge, its upper part covered with snow and its lower part submerged in water, with the kit emerging from the tunnel into the pond. A satisfying picture book for junior naturalists."—Booklist Online

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
K-Gr 3—An exciting introduction to these semiaquatic animals. Readers follow a young beaver kit over the course of a year as he and his family find food, ward off predators, and continue to build their dam and lodge. Short paragraphs lend themselves to being read aloud, and the narrative will hold kids' attention. However, the details and vocabulary found in other animal texts are lacking here; report writers will need to look elsewhere for general facts. Hocking's intricate and beautiful full-spread watercolors greatly enhance the text. VERDICT A solid supplemental purchase.—Jennifer Wolf, Beaverton City Library, OR

School Library Journal

2015-12-22
A young beaver kit grows up in a world in which beavers have lived for generations. Markle introduces her subject when he's only 3 weeks old, "softball-sized." She follows his growth using like familiar comparisons and documents his changing activities as he begins to imitate his parents, to feed himself, and to contribute to the continued building of the dam and providing for the next generation. She smoothly weaves in details of beaver life: their dams and lodges, their food, their enemies, and their activities as the seasons change. This experienced and award-winning author's engaging and informative text is not well-served by its packaging. The tantalizing subtitle is misleading, and the illustrations' stylized wetlands and forests would be more appropriate background for an animated film than an informational picture book. The long beaver dam that is their home is identified only in a short author's note in the backmatter; Markle doesn't use the superlative "longest." The green of Canada's north woods is deep and dark, but these illustrations tend toward the cyan. The text is usually set in white on the dark images, appropriate for the nocturnal animal. Shelves that already include Glen Rounds' classic Beaver (1999) and Jim Arnosky's Beaver Pond, Moose Pond (2000) probably don't need this, but it would complement other books about animal life cycles and includes helpful further research suggestions. Disappointing. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews