A Raven Named Grip: How a Bird Inspired Two Famous Writers, Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe

by Marilyn Singer, Edwin Fotheringham (Illustrator)

Overview

The endearing true story of how a love of birds connected and inspired two literary giants--Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe.

Years before Edgar Allan Poe's raven said "Nevermore," Charles Dickens' pet raven, Grip, was busy terrorizing the Dickens children and eating chipped paint. So how exactly did this one mischievous bird make a lasting mark on literature?

From England to the United States and back again, this is the true and fascinating story of how a brilliant bird captured two famous authors' hearts, inspired their writing, and formed an unexpected bond between them. This ingenious slice of history, biography, and even ornithology celebrates the fact that creative inspiration can be found everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593324738
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	NC950L (what's this?)
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Marilyn Singer is the award-winning author of more than 100 children's books, including the much-honored Mirror Mirror and two other books of reverso poetry, as well as Follow the Recipe and Feel the Beat! Recipient of the 2015 NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award, Marilyn, along with her husband, a standard poodle, cat, and two doves, divides her time between Brooklyn, New York, and Litchfield County, Connecticut, where she delights in watching birds, including ravens.

Edwin Fotheringham grew up in Australia, and attended the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, where he currently lives with his family. The illustrator of several picture books, including the Robert F. Sibert Honor winner What to Do About Alice?, he has also worked on projects as diverse as record covers, department store ads, and illustrations for magazines and newspapers.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2021

This breezy animal biography opens in the British household of the writer Charles Dickens, whose raven Grip teases his children, chasing them around the house. Singer deftly contextualizes Dickens’s literary fame and his typically Victorian taste in pets. Dickens casts Grip as a character in a novel, and while in the U.S. on a lecture tour, an aspiring interviewer named Edgar Allan Poe is so taken with the fictional raven—and a painted image of Grip—that he eventually writes a poem of his own about a raven. Stylized digital spreads by Fotheringham read like a series of animation cells, with a nod to period costumes and details. The most memorable images represent the raven as an enormous bird with the small figures of Dickens and Poe on its back, a symbol of its function as muse and inspiration. Back matter supplies more information about these intelligent animals, as well as a selected bibliography. Ages 6–8. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "Fotheringham’s digital illustrations beautifully evoke the dress and scenery of the Victorian era. Employing the craft of a skilled storyteller, Singer makes a few historical facts come alive in the form of a delightful tale . . . A slice of literary history that will appeal to a young audience as well as teachers, librarians, and caregivers. Perfect as a read-aloud, this is a fine addition for any collection." —School Library Journal, starred review

"An expanded version of one of the several solutions to the Mad Hatter’s riddle about how a raven is like a writing desk: Poe and Dickens wrote on both . . .  Worth treasuring for its very unlikeliness." —Kirkus

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2021

Gr 1–4—While many children will not be acquainted with either Charles Dickens or Edgar Allan Poe, this little-known story will interest and amuse them. The antics of a series of pet ravens, each of whom was named Grip, provided Dickens with valuable writing material, even though these pet birds created plenty of household turmoil and aggravated Dickens's own children. In his book Barnaby Rudge, Dickens invented a literary version of his own raven. This precipitated his relationship with Poe, a yet-undiscovered American writer who was inspired to create his own spooky poem that became an instant hit. Even kids knew about this celebrity author. Croaking like the bird in the poem, they would chase Poe down the street just to have him spin around and declare the most famous word from the poem—"Nevermore!" Fotheringham's digital illustrations beautifully evoke the dress and scenery of the Victorian era. Employing the craft of a skilled storyteller, Singer makes a few historical facts come alive in the form of a delightful tale. Satisfying back matter includes her personal experience with ravens as well as additional raven facts. VERDICT A slice of literary history that will appeal to a young audience as well as teachers, librarians, and caregivers. Perfect as a read-aloud, this is a fine addition for any collection.—Gloria Koster, formerly at West Sch., New Canaan, CT

School Library Journal

2021-09-15
An expanded version of one of the several solutions to the Mad Hatter’s riddle about how a raven is like a writing desk: Poe and Dickens wrote on both.

It’s a neat literary anecdote, though, as more than one raven was involved, Singer has to fudge it a bit. It seems that Charles Dickens kept a succession of pesky ravens as pets, all named Grip. The first he turned into a character in Barnaby Rudge and then had stuffed and mounted when it died. The second was incorporated into a painting of the author’s children that he took with him on an American tour—where Poe saw it in Philadelphia and, being a struggling writer who, as the narrative puts it, “needed a hit,” penned a certain renowned poem. The rest is history. Adding the occasional inscribed Nevermore to tempt listeners to chime in, Fotheringham outfits the two gently caricatured White men and several racially diverse gaggles of laughing children in period clothing and sends multiple ravens, all bearing the same cocky smile, fluttering through the illustrations. Along with added-value closing notes on the ravens of the Tower of London (many named Gripp) and the corvid clan in general, this genial account closes the circle by following Grip I down the years to its current, permanent home…in Philadelphia. It seems only right. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Just a footnote—but worth treasuring for its very unlikeliness. (bibliography, web sites) (Informational picture book. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews