Owls in the Family

by Farley Mowat

Other authorsRobert Frankenberg (Illustrator)

Hardcover, 1961

Call number

J FIC MOW

Collection

Children's/YA Fiction

Genres

Children's Books

Publication

Atlantic Monthly Press book, Little Brown and Co. (1961), Edition: First Edition, 107 pages

Description

Every child needs to have a pet. No one could argue with that. But what happens when your pet is an owl, and your owl is terrorizing the neighbourhood? In Farley Mowat's exciting children's story, a young boy's pet menagerie--which includes crows, magpies, gophers and a dog--grows out of control with the addition of two cantankerous pet owls. The story of how Wol and Weeps turn the whole town upside down s warm, funny, and bursting with adventure and suspense.

Subjects

Owls Fiction

User reviews

LibraryThing member tripleblessings

A favourite I loved as a kid, and was delighted to rediscover as we read it aloud to our kids when they were 6, in Grade One. A delightful true story of a boy growing up in a Canadian prairie town about 50 years ago. Young Farley Mowat loves animals, and adopts two baby Great Horned Owls to keep as

pets, along with a variety of gophers, snakes, and an eccentric dog. Mowat appreciates the character and preferences of each owl, and recounts their adventures with humour, but also with deep sympathy and love. (He is not so kind to some people and cats in the book.) The last chapter is bitter-sweet, when the family moves to Toronto and has to give the owls away to friends. The engaging illustrations by Robert Frankenburg make the stories come alive, and appeal to children and adults alike. This is a good read-aloud for young children, and a great chapter book for grades 2 to 4 to read alone. 107 pages, highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member francescadefreitas

The story of Wols and Weeps, two adopted owl chicks growing up in Mowat's family is delightful and hilarious. It's a slim book, with episodic chapters, ideal for bedtime reading. If this took place today, city planners, animal rights activists, and various other people would have been very upset,

but viewed as a story of the past, the Mowatt's menagerie makes for very entertaining reading.
I'd give this to a reader looking for comic stories, and if it's a hit, I'd try them on other Mowatt stories, and maybe Gerald Durrell.

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LibraryThing member Crowyhead

A favorite from my childhood, it tells the true story of a family who adopts two owls named Weeps and Wol.

LibraryThing member fullyarmedvishnu

A rousingly funny story. But don't read the last chapter if you don't have to.

LibraryThing member jgreenia

This was my favorite book as a child. I remember having no connection to the book (set in the plains of Canada) but I was gripped by the idea of having wild animals as a child.

I went back and re-read it last year and while it offered no gripping prose or development, it was still a great tale of a

child learning about the world.

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LibraryThing member gjchauvin504

I read this book to my students and they were enthralled. I later learned the school library does not have a copy and the librarian had never heard of it. As a graduation gift I gave my little cousin his own copy and asked him to read it himself over the summer and share the magic with their

families and friends. This is a great book for all ages and I would defiantly recomend everyone to read this book.

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LibraryThing member magnolia2

A great book for 3rd grade or above readers. Mixes a good story with facts abouts owls and how they exist. Enjoyable read aloud.

LibraryThing member navyjoe98

I read this book with my 7 year old girl over the last couple of weeks. This was her first real book. We both enjoyed the cute and funny story with some illustrations.

LibraryThing member Bruce_Deming

I really liked this book when I was like 8 years old. Fun story of a boy from Saskatoon raising a couple wild owls.

LibraryThing member LibraryCin

3.75 stars

Billy has a collection of animals as pets, including gophers, snakes, rats… He and a couple of friends decide they want an owl, so go looking to steal one from a nest, but instead find an injured baby owl and bring him home. They later come across a second injured one, and bring him

home for company for Wol, the first owl. The two owls are very different in personality, but they both seem to not realize they are owls who can fly and do other things owls can do.

This was so short; I wish it had been longer. I felt terrible when I thought Billy was going to bring home an owl by stealing it out of a nest! There were plenty of humourous stories about Wol and Weeps. I am curious if Mowat actually had owls as pets.

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LibraryThing member EstherFilbrun

A must-read for all families!

If you or someone you know loves animal stories, I’d highly recommend that you check this book out! It’s been a favorite of mine for a long time, and when I recently re-read it, I remembered just how much of a favorite it is for me.

Billy and his friends love

animals, and when they decide to get owls for pets, they don’t expect to have as many as they end up with! The owls they do end up with are quite the characters. You won’t want to miss the story of Wol and Mutt! That is quite possibly my most favorite part of the story, but there are funny bits all the way through. A highly recommended story, overall. I really enjoyed it!

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LibraryThing member caedocyon

One of the things I find funny about his diff. books is the way you find out that he's edited certain things from the stories. The end in real life was rather sadder than in the children's version.

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