STRANGE CREATURES is about Walter Rothschild and the museum that he created, and the bugs, butterflies and animals that he collected, starting from when he was just 7 years old!
"There's much in Walter Rothschild's story for a tyke to like, particularly the timid boy's end run around his father's ambitions, and Judge makes the most of the battle of wills in her humor-tinged watercolors. Wild animals pop up all over the swanky estate while portraits of ancestors glare down from their frames in disapproval of the family ado. A final note comments on Rothschild's contribution to the burgeoning field of zoology and on the way collection practices and wildlife study have changed over the past century and a half. Primary-grade children who are encouraged (assigned?) to read a biography will find Rothschild to be one of the most engaging guys they've never heard of." -BCCB
"...another inventive book. If it crawled, slithered, or flew, Walter was observing it. … Magnificent!" -Children's Literature Network News, Feb 19, 2011
"In richly colored paintings Ms. Judge shows readers … nautiluses and octopuses, lizards and kiwis, okapis from the Congo, capybaras from Colombia, and marabou storks."
-Wall Street Journal, Feb 11, 2011
"Energetic, expressive paintings, many with unusual perspectives, fill the pages. Not surprisingly, the odd creatures that fascinated Walter are among the most engaging characters, like the giant lizard that peers out from Walter's mother's lily bed. Human characters are more sketchily drawn, which emphasizes Walter's preoccupation with the natural world…" Kirkus Reviews
Walter's Museum today
The grounds around the museum in Tring England
- A Junior Library Guild Selection (Elementary Biography)
- Spring 2011 Kids' Indie Next List from the American Booksellers Association
