It is a great joy to find a story that illustrates the difficult idea of human relationships with the beautiful simplicity of Crow Call. In her first ever picture book, Lois Lowry tells the story of a little girl, Liz, and her longing to rebuild the relationship with her father that has been strained by their time spent apart while he was at war.
In Crow Call, Liz’s father takes her hunting. They sit beside each other on the way staring straight ahead. We can tell, just by the picture that this is an awkward ride. Illustrator, Bagram Ibatoulline, captures the fear and doubt in Liz’s eyes as she stares out the window. Liz’s thoughts, revealed to us from her own perspective, betray her desire to know her father, and for him to know her. But it is too soon. So she pulls her arms and legs up inside the protection of her oversized hunting shirt like a turtle retreating into his shell.
Crow Call is a quiet book, even the pictures are drawn with muted colors. All the background noises we usually take for granted are muffled as father and daughter walk through the forest on the hunt. You can feel the tense silence at times that comes from the two being separated for so long. However, during their day spent together Liz slowly begins to let go of her uncertainty. Until, finally, the crow call sounds. Liz is in charge of the crow call. She is nervous that she will mess it up but once it sounds, she is delighted. She feels free. Its piercing note cuts through the air as if it were dispelling the awkwardness of years spent apart. Finally, when her father honors her wish to spare the crows, she trusts him enough to bring her hand out of her long flannel sleeve and place it in his. We know by the smile on Liz’s face as she looks up at her father that she is finally at ease with having a Daddy again.
Picture books tell stories in a unique way that you will never find in a novel. It is a difficult task first for the author to communicate his or her ideas clearly and concisely and second for the illustrator to effectively capture those ideas in pictures. Everything from color pallet to drawing style to word choice is chosen because it is the best way to get across to the reader the heart of the story. Lois Lowry and Bagram Ibatoulline do this brilliantly. Lowry wrote this story from an experience she had with her own father in 1945. But the ideas it represents, of a child’s longing to feel safe and protected and of the difficulty we all face understanding one another, are universal.
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