The Crows of Pearblossom, illustrated by Sophie Blackall, tells the tale of two crows who nest in a cottonwood tree at Pearblossom, with a tenant, Rattlesnake, living below them. This tenancy causes some issue when Rattlesnake comes up to the crows' nest every day and eats however many eggs she hatches that day. Distraught, and accusing her husband of being insensitive to her plight of losing her children, Mrs. Crow (Amelia) suggests that her husband, (Abraham) kill the snake. We he retorts, "Somehow, I don't feel that's a very good idea . . . Your ideas are seldom good," Mrs. Crow angrily tosses the accusation that her husband is afraid. Adamantly he claims is he not and goes to his friend owl in search of an idea to take care of the snake. Together they concoct a scheme of baking two clay eggs and using them as decoys for the snake. Their plan is successful despite Mrs. Crow's misgivings about not killing the snake. Once Mr. Rattlesnake realizes his mistake he so tightly wound around tree branches to help ease his tummyache that he cannot unwind himself. Mrs. Crow proceeds to give him "a very long lecture on the wickedness of eating other people's eggs". There is a happy ending to the tale with Mrs. Crow's abundant brood providing enough diapers that she puts the snake to use as a clothesline to dry them on.My first instinct with this book that I didn't like it, despite Tony's enthusiasm. I have several reasons for this:
Context: The story itself is dark and filled with the husband and wife insulting each other, bickering crows if you will at every turn, "Abraham, you talk too much. Keep your beak shut and do exactly what I do."/ "Amelia, you talk too much. Keep your beak shut and get out of your nest." The language of the book in this instance is very negative. Also, the vocabulary of the book is very far advanced for the K-3 group, "wickedness", "negelected", "impatient", "vile", "irrigated", etc. Thirdly, there are hidden jokes and adult (not mature) content within the book that the children' won't pick up on. For example, Mr. Crow is portrayed to be a slight crow with striped pants, tiny glasses, and pocket protector, for his job as "assistant manager at the pharmacy" (I'm quoting directly from the book here). And Mr. Owl apologizes to Mr. Crow when he comes to visit because he works the night shift and is in his bedroom slippers. You can ascertain from this fact owls are nocturnal but I don't believe most kindergartenders would pick up on it. I could go on to say what when Mr. Owl and Mr. Crow come to visit Mrs. Crow she is in bed and her hair is in rollers and Rattlesnake who lives downstairs has argyle socks under his bed and dentures in a cup on his bedside table, implying that he is old. Overall they add a very sardonic humor to the story, especially when coupled with the language but I don't think it's very translatable to this age group that the book is aiming for.
Art: The artwork is brilling on some pages while falling flat on others. On one page Blackall has Mr. Owl and Mr. Crow standing over the chimney waiting for the clay eggs to bake. The entire text of the page is filled within a speech bubble made up with smoke from the chimney. Blackall also does some amazing contrasts with colors such as black and yellow to make the crows stand out. They're drawn with toucan shaped heads and a beady black eye sticking out. Not very kid friendly if you ask me. Furthermore, most of the illustrations use very dull colors and aren't very eye catching for young children.
Overall The Crows of Pearblossom would make a very good art book on someone's coffee table right up there with The Gashcumbly Tinies, but I don't see this book being read very much except by older readers with a very unique sense of humor.
Library Journal does the book justice I think with their review, which you can find here.
[pictures taken from http://blommi.com/the-crows-of-pearblossom-childrens-picture-book-review/]
