A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home (Nest for Celeste, 1) - Softcover

Cole, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061704121 ISBN 13: 9780061704123

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books, 2012

Synopsis

A fanciful history lesson for middle graders, featuring a charming mouse named Celeste.

Celeste is a mouse who is looking for a home. Is it nestled in the toe of a warm boot? In the shirt pocket of Celeste’s new friend Joseph? Or is home the place deep inside Celeste’s heart, where friendships live?

Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of black-and-white drawings, A Nest for Celeste is a short novel that tells the story a mouse living in the 1800s and his friendship with John James Audubon’s young apprentice. While enjoying this sweet amd appealing story, young readers will also learn about nineteenth-century plantation life and the famous naturalist who was known for his paintings of birds and American wildlife.

About this title

Review:

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: Celeste is not your average mouse. She lives alone, quietly weaving baskets with creative flair under the floor boards of the Oakley Plantation. However, Celeste’s world turns upside down with the arrival of the great naturalist John James Audubon and his assistant Joseph, who have come to study and paint the birds of the Louisiana bayou. Their arrival coincides with Celeste’s sudden displacement from her home below to a guest room upstairs. There she watches young Joseph struggle to create the backgrounds for Audubon’s bird paintings. As the two homesick souls strike up a friendship, the mouse secretly puts her artistic skills to good use; she simultaneously helps Joseph improve his compositions while aiding the wounded birds that Audubon captures for his studies. Nearly every page of author-illustrator Henry Cole's fine novel combines text and remarkable drawn images to tell the story of a mouse in need of a home of her own from the tiny creature's unique vantage point. Henry Cole’s A Nest for Celeste is a perfect choice for middle readers who enjoy animal adventure tales with a twist.  --Lauren Nemroff

From the Back Cover:

Celeste is a mouse who is looking for a home.

Is it nestled in the toe of a warm boot?

In the shirt pocket of Celeste’s new friend Joseph, who is Audubon’s apprentice?

Or is home the place deep inside Celeste’s heart, where friendships live?

About this edition

• Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0061704121
• ISBN 13: 9780061704123
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352
• Illustrator: Cole Henry