Genre
Picture books for children
Tone
Quiet
Writing Style
Spare
Illustration
Delicate
Muted
Textured
Subject
Animal flight
Night
Owls
Reflection (Optics)
Character
Anthropomorphic

Lovely illustrations. ( )

A little owl sets off from home for some nighttime exploring. In the middle, "owl sees owl" (its reflection in a pond), then reverses its journey home. The whole book is a reverso with "owl sees owl" in the center - a neat construction done so well it doesn't seem contrived at all. The illustrations are beautiful, in dark colors with just enough moonlight to make the sights visible and not at all scary.

Despite her love for owls, the toddler was not interested in this book this time around.

*

Re-read October 2018 ( )

A young owl flies from the nest one night when his mother and siblings are asleep, experiencing the beauties of the moonlit world, and getting a glimpse of himself in a woodland pool before heading home again.

The text in Owl Sees Owl is extremely brief - no more than a few words per page - and is arranged as a reverso poem, with the narrative flowing one way, toward that moment when Owl sees himself, and then reversing to bring him home again. Although structurally this makes a for a good story-line, and gives illustrator Rob Dunlavey an excellent vehicle for his beautiful artwork, created in a variety of media, the text itself here is somewhat less than impressive. Palindrome poetry is a difficult form to master, and I wasn't completely convinced by Laura Godwin's efforts, which sometimes felt more like strings of words than coherent (if spare) expressions. Still, the illustrations were really quite lovely, capturing the enchantment of the nighttime world perfectly, and transporting the reader/peruser into the sylvan environs through which Owl flies. I think the reviewer at School Library Journal, who claims that fans of Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon and Martin Waddell’s Owl Babies will also love this book, is a bit wide of the mark - I loved both of the aforementioned books, but obviously wasn't wowed here - but still would advise fans of those two other titles to pick up Owl Sees Owl. Perhaps they will feel differently. My own three stars are primarily for the artwork... ( )

super simple text - owl flies off and sees his reflection, which startles him, and he flies back home again ( )