Vultures in the Cemetery Review by Don Blankenship - The Ozarks

5.0 out of 5 stars WELL WRITTEN AND BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN'S TALE, July 16, 2009
By
D. Blankenship (The Ozarks)

Vultures in the Cemetery by P.J. Nickels is a delightfully told story of a little chipmunk who lives with his family in an old cemetery deep in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Little Chipmunk and his family are a part of a thriving animal community in this old place of rest, with neighbors such as squirrels, owls, foxes, doves, magpies and yes, each spring, "mangy and ugly looking vultures," as Little Chipmunk proclaimed them much to his mother's dismay. And on this statement, the author hangs her story.

Now before we go on, for those of you that are not familiar with old cemeteries, they are not the scary and creepy places that we have been led to believe they are. No, no, no! If you take the time, and I promise you it will be an enjoyable time, to hang around one of these old sites, you will find that they invariably contain an entire ecosystem within their confines. For years I have, as a hobby, been a nature photographer; flowers, birds, lizards, frogs, toads, snakes, and critters of all sizes and shapes. They are actually wonderful places to hang around. Also, being a birder of 50 years, I have found these old places absolutely alive with birds and often seek them out for that purpose. But for the purposes of this book, it is sort of a stroke of genius on the author's part to use this as a setting, as kids are drawn to such places in their literature and they are also drawn to "ugly vultures...yuk" like flies to honey; more about that later. You have to get their attention, i.e. the kids, before you can get them to read the book. Now that being said.....

Little Chipmunk does not listen to Mother Chipmunk and soon comes face to face with a member of the vulture family who happened to overhear the insults of the previous day. The young vulture's feelings have been hurt. The other animals of this little community also soon hear of Little Chipmunks unkind and thoughtless remarks and are quite put out. Of course word gets back to Mother Chipmunk about her son's behavior and after thinking it over; she contacts the other animals to help in teaching Little Chipmunk a valuable lesson in life. Now as all of you know, I never ever include spoilers in my reviews so I will stop. Trust me though; our little stripped, cheeky, furry friend does indeed learn his lesson!

This is an extremely well written and well told tale that simply overflows with lessons. Of course the first and most important lesson taught is that we all should accept everyone no matter what their physical appearance. It is not bad to be different, and in fact it is a good thing that we all are. Along with this moral lesson, we also have a number of wonderful little natural history lessons that can be worked in here and there by a parent or teacher. I was personally gratified that the author used vultures as one of her central themes and made them into the "good guys." Vultures are one of my favorite birds and I have always felt they deserved better, respect wise, than they normally receive. I have encountered many a dolt in my life who goes out is his or her way to kill these wonderful animals simply "because they are ugly." Mindless! Maybe this will help change the attitude of some of the young who will read this work.

The author has used a mellow, almost "down home" conversational style to tell her tale and it is quite effective. Her universal syntax should appeal to all. The story flows evenly from beginning to end and is extremely easy to follow and is quite logical. Also in the text we find dozens of side bars that can be use to start any number of discussions with the child reading the book. Ms. Nickels is a very talented writer and obviously a natural story teller. And speaking of talent....

The art work in this book by Anita Saunders will quite stun you. While the art is certainly child friendly, each animal or bird depicted is completely anatomically correct, something I am quite fanatical about. Visually her backgrounds are very pleasing to the eye and do not distract from her central subject, a flaw you often see in children's books. Each painting goes perfectly with the text and enhances it.

The actual book, physically, like all the books I have seen from this company, is well made and will be able to take quite a beating from the wee ones. The book is a heavy duty quality paperback!

This is a perfect read a long book for the class room or home. I am not sure which reading level it has been designated yet, but I would guess from late preschool through 4th grade would hit it pretty close. This is the sort of work that can handle multiple readings by an adult without having the adult's eyes roll to the back of their head after twenty or thirty requested rereads, an believe me, this one will get those requests!

This one needs to be in every child's library and should certainly be found in school and public libraries. This is good stuff folks, give it a read!

Don Blankenship

The Ozarks