''Seabird'' is a 1948 book for children and young people, written and illustrated by Holling Clancy Holling.

Plot

Ezra, the

ship's boy ''Cabin Boy'' is a 1994 American fantasy comedy film, directed by Adam Resnick and co-produced by Tim Burton, which starred comedian Chris Elliott. Elliott co-wrote the film with Resnick. Both Elliott and Resnick worked for '' Late Night with Dav ...

on an 1850s whaling ship, uses his off duty time and walrus tusks traded from an Eskimo to carve an

ivory gull The ivory gull (''Pagophila eburnea'') is a small gull, the only species in the genus ''Pagophila''. It breeds in the high Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. Taxonomy The ivory ...

, which later serves as the family mascot. The book follows the history of the gull over the next 80 years as it passes from one of Ezra's descendants to another, while simultaneously tracing the history of commercial transportation, from Clipper ships to jet airplanes.

Description

Each odd numbered page has a picture of an aspect of life at sea. The facing even numbered pages carry the text with wide margins filled with labeled drawings of details of history or natural history, such as how oil was taken from a whale that was too big to bring on board, and how the shape of a ship's bow depends on its intended use.

Reception

First published in 1948, ''Seabird'' was a

Newbery Honor Newbery is a surname. People *Chantelle Newbery (born 1977), Australian Olympic diver *David Newbery (born 1943), British economist *Eduardo Newbery (1878–1908), Argentine odontologist and aerostat pilot *Francis Newbery (disambiguation), seve ...

recipient in 1949.

References

1948 American novels 1948 children's books American children's novels American picture books Children's historical novels Newbery Honor-winning works Children's books about birds Children's novels about animals Children's books set on ships Children's books set in the 1850s {{1940s-child-hist-novel-stub