Nonfiction Monday: The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound

The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound: A Birder’s Journal
Written by Sallie Wolf
Ages 9-12, 47 Pages
Charlesbridge, 2010

Reviewed by Kim Hutmacher

Bio by Laura Crawford

Book Source: We would like to thank Charlesbridge Publishing for providing a copy of this book for review.

This lovely new book by Sallie Wolf reads like her own personal birder’s journal. We see and hear what Sally observes through her notes, sketches and poetry. As an Illinois native, I see lots of robins in my backyard, so my favorite poem in this book is the one which also lends its name to the book’s title.

The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound

The robin makes a laughing sound.
It makes me stop and look around
to see just what the robin sees-
fresh new leaves on twigs of trees,
a strong, high branch on which to rest,
a safe, dry ledge to hold its nest.
The robin makes a laughing sound.
I stop. I always look around.

Readers of this book not only get a look inside the behavior of robins, but also a look at seagulls, cardinals, the white-breasted nuthatch and juncos, among others. But make no mistake. This book is much more than a look at bird behavior. It teaches and inspires observation, thinking and creativity. Readers will desire their on journal and pen and long to record their own observations about the wonders of nature.

Laura Crawford had the opportunity to interview author, Sallie Wolf:

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.

I received a BA degree from Brown University in Anthropology and Archaeology and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. All my art and writing grows out of my journals in some way. In my journals I record my daily activities, my to-do lists, ideas about what I’m working on, what I’m reading, what I’m feeling. I organize my day, my week, my work, my life. And then it becomes the source for my day, my week, my work, my life.
I am now at the exciting place where the art that I make because I love it suggests what I want to write about. The art leads to writing which leads to more art which revises and refines the writing. It all begins in my journals and the process continues in my journals until the book is done. I am the author of three children’s books: PETER'S TRUCKS, TRUCK STUCK and THE ROBIN MAKES A LAUGHING SOUND; A BIRDER’S JOURNAL.

WHERE DO YOUR IDEAS FOR NONFICTION COME FROM?

My ideas come from observing the world around me and from reconnecting with my childhood passions. I have always been passionately interested in nature and natural history—learning to identify the different birds, plants, animal tracks, sea shells, rocks I see around me and on my travels. And my ideas come from listening carefully to the rhythm of words. I find that I have my best ideas when I am walking by myself around my Oak Park neighborhood. Something about the rhythm of walking fits with creating a rhythm of words and ideas seem to flow.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE HARDEST PART ABOUT WRITING?

There are two parts I struggle with; one is making enough time to write to let the writing develop. The other is finding the structure that works for the project. Once I have the structure I can get to the language I need. If the language comes first then I have a hard time giving up precious word combinations to get to a satisfactory structure. In the kinds of books I write—picture books—structure is plot. It is what holds the book together as a whole. I don’t think in terms of “plot” and I do think in terms of structure. For The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound the structure began as bird collages on a calendar. I could see that I had 12 illustrations and thought all I needed was text to go with each bird. As I began to write I realized that poetry would work better than prose. Then I abandoned the collages and the calendar and opened up the number of birds observed. Then I switched to organizing by season rather than by month. I felt I was better able to portray my experience of observing birds with this seasonal structure.

WHAT IS THE STRANGEST FACT YOU HAVE LEARNED?

For three mornings in a row one April, a female cardinal sat on a twig over my patio and sang and sang. I was surprised because I had always assumed that only the males sang. I knew she had a nest in a bush nearby so on the third day I got a hand mirror, and when I knew she was not on her nest I held it over the nest and peeked at the contents—4 eggs! Do you think she was singing about laying eggs? I do. My understanding is that they lay one egg a day until the clutch is complete. I think I missed the first day, and heard her each of the next three. I have never been able to repeat this experience to date so I can’t really be sure that I’m right, but I think she was singing to announce her eggs—whether before or after laying, I can’t say.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST WORK.

I have just submitted a ms based on my Moon Project which is an on-going art project of observing the moon and making art based on the information I record in my journals. The methodology is very similar to how I developed the bird book, gathering information in my journals and then compiling that and working from those observations. To learn more about the moon project, check out my website: http://www.salliewolf.com/moon.html

This post is part of the Nonfiction Monday Round-Up hosted this week by Books Together blog.