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Summary
Summary
When Jim the lumberjack chops down some animals' homes, they find a new one -- in his beard!
Every day, lumberjack Jim Hickory heads into the forest with his trusty ax and chops down trees. Unfortunately, all sorts of creatures, including a bird, a porcupine, and a beaver, lose their homes in the process, so Jim gives them a home in his beard -- until one day it all gets to be too much. Time for Jim to come up with a better solution! This funny story carries a green message.
Author Notes
Duncan Beedie is an author and illustrator with more than fourteen years' experience working in children's media. He began his career in children's TV as an animator before branching into design and animation for websites, games, and educational apps. He was a doodler from a very early age and has fond memories of being sprawled on his parents' living-room floor drawing for hours. He lives in Bristol, England, with his wife, daughter, and tirelessly playful springer spaniel.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Lumberjack Jim Hickory encounters angry animals when their homes are compromised as a result of his job. Jim kindly lets them to reside in his bushy beard, but before long his daily schedule is interrupted by the new residents, which causes him to shave. While the animals are happy making new homes out of Jim's beard scraps, Jim considers the bare landscape as he scratches his bare chin, and begins planting trees instead of cutting them down. The digital artwork is expressive with a style that reveals the creator's background in animating websites, games, and educational apps. Fans of Beedie's debut picture book The Bear Who Stared will not be disappointed. VERDICT A funny read-aloud with a subtle conservational message.-Samantha Lumetta, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Deforestation meets depilation in the story of an overzealous lumberjack named Big Jim Hickory, whose thoroughness leaves some local animals without homes. "After a long day of swinging, whacking, cleaving, and hacking," Beedie (The Bear Who Stared) shows Jim returning to his cabin, a wide expanse of stumps behind him, lit by the setting sun. An irate bird shows up at his doorstep ("I had just built a new nest in my tree," the bird complains, "and you chopped it down!"), so Jim invites the bird to take up residence in his sizable beard. A displaced porcupine and beaver soon follow, playing havoc with Jim's daily routines of limbering-up exercises and towering pancake breakfasts. Beedie's digital cartoons have a burliness to match his hero, and although the story is mostly played for laughs (Jim shaves his beard, and the animals move into the resulting hairball), there's no ignoring the starkness of the decimated forest. (Jim doesn't ignore it either, and he embarks on a replanting mission.) An easygoing storytelling style, ample visual humor, and the amusingly improbable premise make Beedle's environmental message go down easy. Ages 5-8. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
After burly lumberjack Jim Hickory chops down a tree in which a now-irate bird had a nest, he makes amends: "I suppose you could move into my beard." Soon he's hosting a similarly inconvenienced porcupine and beaver--and now it's Jim who's inconvenienced. The story's resolution is sublime, and Beedie's deadpan digital illustrations relay the nonstop silliness that cushions a worthy ecological message. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Jim Hickory, a lumberjack with a guilty conscience, opens his beard to a trio of forest refugees.Jim the lumberjack has a strict but comforting routine: limbering-up exercises, big pancake breakfast, and a day of chopping trees before a relaxing evening in his cabin. One evening, a bird, angry that the tree that held its new nest has been felled, appears at Jim's door. Feeling sorry for the bird, Jim invites the bird to roost in his beard. Slight routine disruptions ensue: the bird sings early in the morning and eats some of Jim's pancakes. Then, bushed after a day of burning leaves and twigs, Jim is dismayed when a porcupine who now has nothing to build a shelter with bangs on the door.Tenant No. 2 is a bigger disruption in the routine. When they're joined by a beaver whose dam Jim accidentally destroyed floating logs downriver, it's too much for the lumberjack to take. He chops off his enormous beard (leaving it on the front porch for his three new friends) and has a restful night of sleep. With all the nearby trees gone, he has to find a new taskand planting a fresh forest of trees seems a win-win-win-win proposition. British author/illustrator Beedie's digitally created, rustic-styled illustrations extend the silly, simple story nicely with their warm, forest-y hues. A good addition to the growing shelf of facial-hair fables; themes of conservation and friendship are a plus. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
With a nod to the folktale generally titled The Mitten and a sweet dollop of environmental responsibility, Beedie dishes up a tale about a busy lumberjack. Upon discovering that he's rendered, in succession, a bird, a porcupine, and a beaver homeless, the lumberjack invites them to take up residence in his bushy beard. As happens with any roommates, frictions soon ensue, from bird poop on the lumberjack's clothes to morning pancakes scattered by the beaver's tail. At last, the lumberjack cuts off his beard and leaves it on the porch for the animals to inhabit and then, seeing the wasteland of stumps he's created around his cabin, he sets out to replant the forest. The big, blocky illustrations close with a series of views of the lumberjack and his animal friends sitting protectively around a small tree through multiple seasons until it (and a new beard) grows and finally gathering beneath its shade to read Jean Giono's classic The Man Who Planted Trees. Nourishing fare for budding eco-activists.--Peters, John Copyright 2017 Booklist
