It’s that time – the sunsets are later, the allergies are gearing up, and the crows are stirring. Most people know of the infamous swooping season – when new and protective crow parents will now consider you A Very Suspicious Character and suddenly whoosh! …you’ve been stealth swooped. Patrons of the West Seattle branch are keenly aware of their resident corvid guardians I’m sure.
But move past the anxiety inducing fly-bys and there is so much to celebrate about the family Corvidae! From magically engineered war corvid fiction to fun crow facts, the library is here to satisfy your crow curiosity…crowiosity?
Of course, leading the charge is Hollow Kingdom by local author Kira Jane Buxton. Navigating a Seattle full of zombified and mutating humans, a pet crow, S.T., finds himself on a mission to free pets abandoned in homes, becoming a leader and hero among crows and various animal allies. Other crow-point-of-view fiction options include Song of the Crow, a creative retelling of the biblical Noah’s Ark story from the perspective of a crow by Layne Maheu (also a local author); and Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley, about the many lives of a 2,000 year old crow.
If you don’t need a crow protagonist but still desire crow-ish elements, try Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Set in a world inspired by the pre-Columbian Americas, members of the Carrion Crow clan await the arrival of their crow god to avenge a centuries-old wrong. Queer and BIPOC characters, destiny, and war crows!
The warrior crow element continues in the grimdark fantasy The Daughter’s War by Christopher Buehlman, a war novel of one young noblewoman’s defiant decision to join the Raven Knights, a military unit that rides magically bred giant war corvids into battle to fight a relentless goblin horde. Gore, grief, and bonded crow battle mounts.
If you want just the facts about our corvid friends, there’s plenty of non-fiction for you. You could try In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John M. Marzluff, a look at crows and ravens throughout history and their cultural significance around the world. The Ravenmaster: My Life With the Ravens at the Tower of London is filled with anecdotes and history of the famous ravens by former Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife, who devoted 14 years to their care. For young readers there is a wonderful graphic novel, Crow: Genius Birds, from the Science Comics series that is a fun, engaging, and informative source of crow facts.
Celebrate the crow days of spring with a book from the library, and maybe learn how to make a new bird friend to survive the swooping days ahead.
~ posted by Chelsea M.
