Review in of Crow by Boria Sax, in The Sacred Hoop, Summer 2004, p. 39

 

Reviewer: Janey Verney

 

Boria Sax has assembled a glorious romp of a book about the Crow family, and our human responses to it. Primarily the book looks at the crow and the raven, though other corvids get a mention - rooks, magpies, jackdaws and jays. This little book is a visual delight, from its striking black, white and red cover to its plentiful illustrations, many of which are from Western art and natural history, but also there is a range of images from around the world - Native American, Japanese, Chinese and Arabian. And the textual references are equally eclectic: myths and stories from many cultures, and from familiar European writers, from Pliny to Poe and Ted Hughes. There is even a list of websites to visit on different areas of interest, and a timeline of the crow from 30 million BCE to a lab in 2002 where a crow solved problems that stumped chimps and monkeys. I couldn't put this book down.