The Lumberjack's Beard

Description

Every day, Jim the lumberjack chops down trees. When his tree-felling leads to his woodland friends losing their homes, Jim comes up with a brilliant idea that will change the way they share the forest forever.

Duncan is an author and illustrator with over 15 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 has been a keen doodler from a very early age and has fond memories of being sprawled out on his parents' living room floor with trusty felt tip in hand for hours at a time. He lives in Bristol with his wife, daughter and tirelessly playful Springer Spaniel, IvorHis first book for Templar was The Bear Who Stared.

This is a fun story for children to use to learn about forest habitats and the consequences of destroying woodlands. It could lead to work about plant growth, habitats, animals, survival and changing landscapes. * Reading Zone * A lumberjack needs to make a living but how does it affect the woodland animals when he cuts down the trees, burns the leaves and branches and sends the logs down the river? This beautifully illustrated, entertaining and humorous story shows children how the ecosystem is impacted by tree felling and what can be done to help reduce the impact.The Lumberjack's Beard subtly hides an important message in an entertaining way. Once Big Jim realises how much his work affects the bird, the porcupine and the beaver he resolves the problem, initially at personal cost. A relationship grows between him and the animals and our favourite double page spread comes at the end of the book and shows how Big Jim and his friends spend each season together watching new trees grow.We love the colour scheme in Duncan Beedie's illustrations. As befits the story he uses earthy colours and mixes fabulous double page spreads with smaller illustrations. Big Jim's routine is the same every day but the illustrations wonderfully portray the little ways that this routine is disrupted by his new visitors, his beard becomes much less well groomed as the story progresses!This would be a great book to use in the classroom as part of a topic on animals and the environment. It shows in a lighthearted way how important trees are to birdlife and wildlife. A fun classroom activity would be for the children to research how important woods and trees are for other animals and birds not mentioned in the story as well as insects and people. You could make a fabulous classroom display or a class book using all the different animals / birds the children have chosen! * Story Snug * This is a heartwarming and redeeming story, on the one hand. On the other it can be used very effectively to warn of the dangers of environmental destruction, and of the effects, sometimes unintended, of our actions on the natural world.The hirsute protagonist of the story is Jim Hickory. Big Jim and his bushy beard cut down trees from morning 'til night, day after day, and Jim was good at his job. But Jim had a problem; all those trees cut down meant that more and more animals were becoming homeless and with that he had to come up with a solution... well, beards need to be useful for something, don't they! Just when you think the story might end in a quirky but environmentally unfriendly manner, Big Jim redeems himself, and does what is best for the world around, the animals that depend on it and, ultimately, for his own wellbeing and happiness. We all know someone who is a bit 'Jim Hickory' from the start of the book; perhaps this will make sure that more of us end up like 'end of story' Jim! * Eye Magazine * Every day, Jim Hickory the lumberjack heads into the forest where he chops down trees and clears them away. Sadly, all sorts of creatures lose their homes in the process, so kind-hearted Jim gives them a home in his beard - until one day it all just gets too much. Time for Jim to come up with a better solution, which he does, very effectively. A lovely and unusual story with a green message which is superbly understated, and all the more powerful for that. * Parents in Touch * 'm often asked - what makes a good picture book? There are so many elements it's hard to be so prescriptive, but this book certainly ticks lots of the boxes. With a stunning main character, lashings of food, fun with language, a slightly distorted silly reality and a green message, this book won me over (and my little testers).Lumberjacks are great fodder for stories - they appear in fairy tales - from the woodcutter who saves Red Riding Hood, to, in some versions, Hansel and Gretel's father. The idea of the lumberjack links to a shared cultural past - the history of when men cut down trees by hand rather than by machine, and also a bygone era in which they embodied ideals of masculinity - strength, solitude, and a conflicted solidity in common with the trees they were about to fell. Of course, many of you, me included, will launch into Monty Python's Lumberjack song at about this point in my blog. "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...."In The Lumberjack's Beard, the protagonist is Jim Hickory, a lumberjack who lives in a stunning mountainous landscape populated with a plethora of triangular trees, eats a stack of pancakes each day (I'm sure Duncan Beedie knows that Lumberjack Day is synonymous with Pancake Day in the States) before venturing outside his log cabin and starting work for the day, chopping down trees.But when the woodland creatures lose their homes, they demand a new place, and although Jim offers his beard as a new home, there comes a time when it all gets too much for him. A better solution is needed.The language is great - not only do we hear the noise Jim makes when he fells a tree, but also this is an extremely active man. He does his limbering exercises before his lumbering job, but he also swings and cleaves and whacks and hacks. He chops and snaps...the vocabulary is pitched perfectly - it fits the story and adds to the excitement.But as with all great picture books, it's the illustrations that need to come up trumps. Beedie not only has the main illustrations serving his purpose well - from the colours that emphasise the woodland feel of the story, to the expressions of his characters, (an indignant porcupine, an outraged bird, and an incredulous beaver), but he also pays attention to the small details: Jim's mug, the bird's glasses, the variety of textures between the animals, Jim's beard, and Jim's comfortable dwelling - his bed cover, his shirt etc.Of course, the message at the end is that planting trees to replace those he is cutting is the ultimate solution, and it even shows the patience taken in doing so. The reader too is encouraged to have patience - lingering over the spread in which the seasons change allowing the trees to grow - so that they can spot the animals' various activities in the different weathers.This is a thwumping story, full of passion, humour and heart, and sure to become a new favourite. * Minerva Reads * Jim Hickory is a Lumberjack of routine. Every morning, after he gets up, he does his limbering up exercises (very important for a lumberjack!), then he eats his breakfast of pancakes with maple syrup, before finally getting his trusty axe and heading out into the forest. One day, however, this routine becomes interrupted when he hears someone peck-pecking at his door, only to discover it's a small owl who has been made homeless by Jim's tree felling. Jim allows the owl to set up home in his big bushy beard, without realising just quite what he is letting himself in for...You can probably imagine that once he has an owl living in his beard, poor old Jim the Lumberjack soon finds that there are other animals who have been made homeless by his actions too. He does have an extremely large beard, fortunately, though I did wonder quite how he manages to fit an owl, and a porcupine, and a beaver in there! With the influx of animal residents his routine starts to fall apart, and Jim is sleeping less, unable to perform his exercises, and the bird poo on his shoulder puts him right off his big stack of pancakes! Never fear! Jim is a resourceful man, and he soon figures out a new temporary home for his friends, as well as a more long-term solution.This is a sweet story, both funny and charming, and with a nice environmental message too. The illustrations compliment the story perfectly, and I really liked the variety of full page images with panel pictures, split pages and different shapes and sizes of image. Jim is a funny character, with his enormous beard, and also his rather overdeveloped upper body in comparison with a pair of very spindly legs! I like that he has no mouth for most of the book, since it's covered up with his beard, and so all his expressions must come from his eyes and his body language. The animals who set up home in his beard are also sweetly drawn. The owl has round black spectacles, and I loved that she turned up at Jim's house with a shopping trolley in which she's got her knitting!One of my favourite pages is towards the end and shows a picture for each season of the year, where we see Jim and his friends all waiting for a new tree to grow. The animals are doing something different in each image, from playing cards, to listening, to sunbathing and listening to a walkman! There's lots to see throughout, and it's easy to imagine the landscape of Jim's home, with the beautiful images of a huge forest surrounded by mountains. The beard becoming a home is nonsense, of course, but it's just the sort of nonsense that small children love, and that will leave them on the lookout for overly large beards in the future, just in case there are any creatures living in there! * Book Bag * When Jim Hickory, the lumberjack chops down all the trees in the area he makes a lot of woodland animals homeless. Where can they live? In his beard of course! Cue mayhem and lots of laughter. Endearing and very cute illustrations combined with slapstick humour makes this perfect for sharing. It also has an appealing and very important environmental message at its heart about being more thoughtful of others and to remember to replenish for the future. * South Wales Evening Post/ Drawing on Books * Another fun picture book with an important environmental message packed full of fantastic vocabulary, giggles and big bristly beards! Highly recommended. * Library Girl and Book Boy * In a world where some highly influential people insist that 'climate change' is a myth and that there is no need to protect the environment in which we live, how can we educate children about the dangers our planet faces? 'The Lumberjack's Beard is a humorous exploration of the consequences when we take our finite resources for granted. Jim Hickory chops drown trees all day not realising that he is making lots of woodland creatures homeless. When there are no trees left he is forced to house them all in his beard which inevitably causes him great annoyance and stress. When it gets too much for him to bear he needs to come up with a long-lasting solution. Bold and vivid illustrations bring this story to life and capture the chaos of the destruction of the forest wonderfully. * Book Lover Jo * 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. * Publishers Weekly * 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 * School Library Journal *