One day, when the village floods, Feather helps raise the alarm as Lotus and her grandfather urge their neighbors to get to high ground. Soon Feather is following Lotus everywhere, even to school! The bird dances to the girl's reed whistle, much to the delight of the other children. As Lotus nurses Feather back to health, their bond grows. A hunter's bullet left Feather, a crane, injured and unable to fly.
"Downing’s sensitive illustrations shine in a rich, muted palette, using sweeping lines and patterned details to conjure cozy, 1940s-era domestic scenes where lions snooze on laps and tigers frolic in bubble baths.” Publisher’s Weeklyīy Ji-Li Jiang, Illustrated by Julie DowningĪ winter illness left Lotus, a little girl, without a voice and without friends.
A charming reflection of courage and change”. A concluding note provides more information about this groundbreaking figure and explains how, like Helen, women of this era sometimes had to find quiet ways to break societal and gender norms. When zoo officials discover her enterprise, they surprisingly approve, and Helen becomes the first female zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo. She takes mothering other baby animals into her own hands, secretly creating a nursery in an abandoned building. After nurturing more babies at home, this time tiger cubs, and another difficult goodbye, Helen begins to tend to their needs directly at the zoo.
All seems well in the storylike narrative and endearing, patterned illustrations that reflect both the colors and culture of the time period and the range of emotions felt by Helen, especially when MacArthur is taken away to another zoo. And like many proud mamas, Helen documents his “firsts” and overlooks the chewed-up shoes and ripped couch for lap snuggles. When Fred comes home with a baby one day-a neglected lion cub-it’s not the kind Helen anticipated, but she immediately takes the cub in her arms, names him MacArthur, and gives him round-the-clock care. “While her husband, Fred, spent his days working at the Bronx Zoo in the 1940s, Helen Martini longed for a baby.
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