Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World
by Jill Esbaum; illus. by Rebecca Gibbon
Primary    Calkins/Astra    48 pp.
3/24    9781635926866    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781635926873    $11.99

This lively picture-book biography introduces readers to “one of America’s first bird photographers,” whose early-twentieth-century books about the natural world have inspired generations of conservationists and birders. Unconventional for her time, Stratton-Porter (1863–1924) develops her fascination with birds and their behaviors during a carefree childhood in rural Indiana. As a “grown-up married lady,” she writes about her birding experiences but declines to be published when she learns her words would be accompanied by unlifelike drawings of birds “posed in silly positions.” Photography changes everything for Stratton-Porter, and she embarks on a five-year project in the Limberlost Swamp near her home, photographing birds in their natural habitat (including “the world’s first photo series of a growing vulture chick”). Esbaum’s (Jack Knight’s Brave Flight, rev. 5/22) conversational text engagingly conveys her subject’s single-minded pursuit of her passion: sharing her love of birds with the world. Gibbon’s (illustrator of Marjory Saves the Everglades, rev. 3/21) evocative acrylic-ink and colored-pencil illustrations depict the era and the beauty of the environs. Back matter includes more about Stratton-Porter and her influence; two photos of the subject and one of her photographs of a barn owl; a bibliography; and a list of Stratton-Porter’s own books.

From the January/February 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.