A Nest for Celeste: A Novel about Art, Inspiration, and the
Meaning of Home
Henry Cole
Katherine Tegan Books, 2010
$16.99, Hardcover
978-0061704109
April 5th, 2012
Genre:
Historical, Animal Fantasy
Age: 8+
Description:
Celeste is a small brown mouse with a girl for weaving baskets who is trying to
find a new home after being ousted out of her nest by two unfriendly rats. When
Joseph, the young apprentice to Mr. John James Audubon, visits the Louisiana
Plantation for a few months in 1821, Celeste finds a new friend as Joseph’s
inspiration for his drawings. Soon Celeste is living a new life as she learns
more about Joseph and his art, makes some new friends (such as Lafayette, an
osprey, and Cornelius, a thrush) and soon learns the meaning of true
friendships.
Opinion:
This is a beautifully crafted novel with many of the illustrations telling the
story themselves (much like the combination of text and picture of more popular
novels like The Invention of Hugo Cabret).
While a long novel (350+ pages), I breezed through it in two hours. It is
reminiscent of other classic animal tales, such as Charlotte’s Web and Watership
Down, and it doesn’t gloss over any of an animal’s hardships to survive—one
of the evil rats is captured and eaten by the house cat, while Audubon is part
of a hunting group that shoots down birds and then he pins their decomposing
carcasses up to draw them “alive”. Some readers might be put off by the
old-fashioned, simplistic tone. However, many animal lovers really will enjoy
this beautiful novel.
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