Life in the Neck: New Friends by Diane Davies and Margarita Sikorskaia
Published: Beaver’s Pond Press, Inc., 2018
A fawn, a rabbit and a cardinal live together in the Neck, a narrow strip of land beside a river. They meet, make friends and navigate dangers in the hunting ground of Old Coyote.
The book is divided into three introductions to the central animals and their families with a few facts about each species woven into the narration. Story-wise, there’s not much here that doesn’t happen in Bambi: standard nature dangers include fire, dogs, and woodland predators. Two welcome deviations are a cardinal (OK, I love cardinals and no one uses them) and Old Coyote, whose characterization takes a surprising turn.
The art is quite pretty, and that makes sense because the illustrations are by accomplished artist Margarita Sikorskaia. Pleasing as her gentle forest creatures are, I recommend checking out her fine art paintings. Her stark, curved portraits of families are truly striking.
Life in the Neck: New Friends is an excellent art piece with some informative nature scenes and a gentle message about friendships over differences. One amusing point: whenever Old Coyote is thwarted he has to hunt Canada geese; no one will miss them, right?