Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons

The Loon Project, based in Min­neso­ta and Wis­con­sin, dis­cov­ered a loon fam­i­ly car­ing for a mal­lard duck­ling. From May to August 2019, researchers record­ed obser­va­tions and doc­u­ment­ed pho­tos of a loon cou­ple whose own off­spring dis­ap­peared and their care and feed­ing of a baby duckling.

This book, Find­ing Fam­i­ly: The Duck­ling Raised by Loons, writ­ten by Lau­ra Pur­die Salas, is out­stand­ing for sev­er­al rea­sons. Telling this sto­ry in free form verse with essen­tial word choic­es, evokes won­der, car­ing, and tears. She address­es unan­swer­able ques­tions with the refrain “Nobody knows.”

It suc­ceeds as a read-out-loud and lap-sit­ting sto­ry, a pic­ture book for old­er read­ers, a nature book, and most espe­cial­ly a sci­ence book that helps us under­stand that so many aspects of life don’t have answers.

Square­ly based on research with pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary sources, as well as knowl­edge gained while writ­ing her own Secrets of the Loon with pho­tog­ra­ph­er Charles Day­ton (Min­neso­ta His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety Press), this book will also serve as a men­tor text. How does an author deal with unan­swered ques­tions? How does one find the ten­sion in a true sto­ry? How does word choice make this nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion of the best kind?

Alexan­dria Neon­akis, born and raised in Nova Sco­tia, cur­rent­ly liv­ing in Los Ange­les, cre­at­ed dig­i­tal illus­tra­tions in a palette of blues, greens, and browns that are soft and watery, adding details that set us firm­ly with­in the nat­ur­al world of water birds. Her loons and duck­ling are com­plete­ly bird-like and yet there are moments of tenderness.