Additional information
by Tony Johnston (Author), Deborah Kogan Ray (Illustrator)
Tony Johnston's THE BARN OWLS recalls in quiet tones the memory of a barn that has stood alone in a wheat field for one hundred years at least. The owls have nested there and have hunted in the fields and circled in the night skies as time slowly slipped by. Every night, as the moon rises, a barn owl awakens and flies out to hunt. Feathered against the endless starry night, he swoops and sails to the darkened wheat field below and catches a mouse in his nimble talons. With outstretched wings, this barn owl returns to his barn nest and his hungry family, repeating the ageless ritual his ancestors have practiced here, in this barn, for at least one hundred years. Following the life cycle of the barn owl, this gentle poem evokes a sense of warm sunshine and envelopes readers with the memory of the scent of a wheat field.
Author Biography
Tony Johnston is the author of over 100 books for children, including THE CAT WITH SEVEN NAMES and THE HARMONICA. Johnston has worked at a children's bookstore, taught a course on picture book writing at UCLA, and studied poetry writing for children with Myra Cohn Livingston. Although she has published nearly seventy-five books, Johnston never stops working. Always juggling several different story ideas, Tony is grateful for the chance to work at what has become her life's goal-to be a good storyteller. She lives in California.
Deborah Kogan Ray studied painting and printmaking at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She is an award-winning author and illustrator of children's books, including Dinosaur Mountain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and The Barn Owls. She particularly enjoys depicting the natural world. Deborah lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
