Caw! Caw! Or the Chronicle of Crows, A Tale of the Spring Time: Children's Book with Illustrations

by R.M.

A rather sad tale, told in rhyme, of a group of crows who lose some of their family members due to a farmer who decides to rid himself of the birds. The title page of the book only gives the author’s initials as R. M., and the illustrator as J.B. We’ve little information on the author, but the illustrations are most likely the work of the Scottish artist Jemima Blackburn (1823-1909). Jemima, also known as Mrs Hugh Blackburn, was a friend of the Victorian artist Sir Edwin Landseer who was known for his paintings of animals and who admired Blackburn’s talents. She became particularly known for her bird illustrations and in the 1860s published Birds Drawn from Nature which received much praise. Her work was said to be second only to Thomas Bewick’s (1753-1828) engravings in A History of British Birds, published in two volumes in 1797 and 1804.

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1870

Reviews

[Maria Dedelis]

I liked the first part of the book which is the poem about the crows (albeit sad). The second one though is a scary example how (even though it might've been intended to be black humour) stories full of cruelty and racism could be published (as a book for children as well which is simply sick - I'm pretty shocked to be honest).

[Susan Molloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1870.

This is a collection of poetry geared towards children, with wonderful lessons in morals, with tales of crows and their interactions between themselves and farmers. This concludes the first half of this book.

In the second half, there are more moral stories: Shock-Headed Peter, The Story of Cruel Frederick, and my favorite, The Story of the Inky Boys. There are more poem-stories, too.

The illustrations are quite pretty and colorful, and in that form, they make the poems come alive and dance on the pages.

When I picked up the Kindle version of this book, I despised the formatting and lack of illustrations, which gave me a bad attitude on the poetry therein. When I finished reading, my thought was, “What in Heavens name is this?” It is funny how, that when I found the original illustrated version on Gutenberg Project, my thoughts on this book changed for the better, and therefore, I am giving Caw! Caw! Or The Chronicle of Crows, A Tale of the Spring-time my full three stars.

🟣Kindle version.
🟤 Gutenberg Project.

[Maria Skyllas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love exploring art & literature from the 1800s.
Besides the first story relating to crows and the circle of life, this book includes a few other stories for children, mostly with simplistic and boring morales. I found it interesting to see what type of educational tools and scare tactics were used in those years, but I can't recommend this book to anyone.