Building

"Cole’s nature sketches reveal a keen eye and hand. A stellar offering. Nature lovers of all ages will enjoy this beautiful, informative book."

"Cole illustrates a pair of robins, employing gentle black-and-white crosshatching and one dramatic pop of color: the signature deep robins’-egg blue of the eggs. Uncomplicated language describes the nesting process, while illustrations both mirror and extend the text. [A] solidly scientific account."

"With a concise text and delicate, precise illustrations, this companion book to Cole's Nesting (2020) [follows] a pair of industrious beavers. Cole's fine gray-and-black line work depicts the beavers and their environment with graceful natural shapes defining the pond, the surrounding trees, and the animals. The use of color is minimal and all the more effective for it. A beautiful introduction to beavers as builders and creators of their environment."

"Cole introduces readers to the masters of the trade: beavers. A practiced storyteller, he employs an engaging refrain (“Building, building. That is what beavers do best”) to emphasize this theme as he constructs a year in the life of one beaver family. [A] wondrous account."

PRAISE FOR NESTING: "Robin's-egg blue highlights this account of an American robin family's year . . . [the] bright color contrast[s] arrestingly with [the] black-and-white surroundings. Cole varies the design from vignettes and panels to full- and double-page spreads. The relatively simple text, expressed in short sentences, is very accessible, and the natural history . . . is accurate. Aimed at a younger audience . . . this conveys essential information. Beautiful, informative, and appropriate to the audience."

"Cole’s fine-line drawings—black-and-white, with occasional washes of robin’s-egg blue—use short, agitated lines and layered hatching to richly render the birds’ world."