A hunter teaches his new duck-hunting partner to retrieve sticks and carry eggs gently in his mouth without breaking them. But from their first hunting trip, the dog cannot bear to retrieve the wounded birds for his master. Instead, he brings sticks back to the hunter and takes the ducks to an island where they can heal. One night, the hunter discovers the secret after he follows his dog to the island where he delivers daily bread to the ducks. The hunter is ashamed. He follows the example of his tender-hearted dog and nurses the birds back to health before setting them free. The reissue of this story of compassion is brightly illustrated with his characteristically colorful paintings. Readers will note that the hunter is dressed like a clown and may infer that the dog is wiser than his master.
Author
Brian Wildsmith (1930-2016) was raised in a small mining village in Yorkshire, England, where, he says, "Everything was grey. There wasn't any colour. It was all up to my imagination. I had to draw in my head..." He won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art where he studied for three years. For a while he taught music at the Royal Military School of Music, but then gave it up so that he could paint full time. He has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the greatest living children's illustrators. In 1962, he published his first children's book, ABC, for which he was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal, Britain's equivalent to the Caldecott Medal. He was also a runner up for this medal for The Owl and the Woodpecker. Wildsmith has said: "I believe that beautiful picture books are vitally important in subconsciously forming a child's visual appreciation, which will bear fruit in later life." In 1994, the Brian Wildsmith Art Museum was established in Izukogen, a town south of Tokyo, Japan. Almost one and a half million people visited a traveling exhibition of his work in 2005. Eight hundred of his paintings are on loan to the museum. Brian is married, has four children, and currently lives in the south of France. — Source
