Science - great book! ( )

A crane figures out where he belongs
Age 4-5
Pierce County LIbrary

I enjoyed the illustrations more than the actual story; although, it was beautiful seeing how the lives of the cranes are. ( )

On page one, we meet a crane, standing in the water, with a plastic soda six-pack holder caught around his neck. A girl sets him free, and waves goodbye, referring to him by the name, 'Luck.' He joins his parents in the sky, and together with other cranes, they migrate northward. His family shares a call, which sounds like "Crackaarr," in order to find one another. As they fly north, his parents remember the path by memorizing natural landmarks, like rivers and fields. Luck, however, remembers his path by a girl's sunglasses, a baby carriage, and a boy in a canoe. After returning home and growing older, Luck leaves his parents and finds a mate, Wise. Luck and Wise create their own call, "Kharrr." Later, the time came to migrate south, but Wise followed natural landmarks, like rivers, and Luck flew in search of the boy in the canoe and the baby carriage. The two birds became separated, but later reunited. They came across the girl that had helped Luck escape from the plastic soda holder, and she changed his name to 'Love.' The birds sounded their call, revealing their true names. Newbery Medal-winning author Jean Craighead George's story is a beautiful one. Illustrator Wendell Minor's bright images show a sky filled with cranes. When Luck and the other cranes fly, they truly appear to be in flight. We see the way the birds sometimes stand, with one leg tucked underneath. Readers also see the way the cranes land, flying down from the sky. When Luck finds his mate, we see how they react to one another, fluttering their feathers. ( )