Owls in the Family: A New Old Book

                  Owls in the Family … Farley Mowat

Owls in the Family (1961; this edition 1996) is the story of “Billy”, a boy in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada) and his adventures that begin when he goes out seeking an owl for a pet. He lives on the verge of some pretty wild country, and he already has a multitude of animals, chiefly his dog Mutt (hero of his own adventures, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be), but also gophers, white rats, garter snakes, pigeons, and rabbits. But he wants an owl.

First, he and his friend try snatching the baby owls from a nest they find, but the mother owl always stymies them. Then a storm destroys the nest. The mother is gone, and he finds only one baby owl left alive on the ground. He takes it home, nurses it back to health, and names him Wol after the owl in Winnie-the-Pooh. Soon after he rescues another baby owl from a boy tormenting it in an oil barrel; he names it Weeps after the sound it makes.

Wol eventually learns to fly, but Weeps never does (he seems a bit timid and traumatized). They prefer walking, however; in fact, Billy’s father comments that they think they are people. Many of their encounters and adventures stem from this fact, with Wol turning up at school or introducing himself to the visiting minister. Eventually the family has to move, and Billy must place his beloved owls with a friend who lives even farther out in the wilds.

I first read this book back in grade school in the early 1970’s, and I think there was a copy in the public library as well. It stoked my love and interest in owls. For a while we had a pet – well, I say a pet, it was more a rescue – a little owl we called Blinkie (it had a wounded eye, but probably also named after Dr. Blinkie from H. R. Pufnstuf); Pop found it injured and brought it home. We did out best to nurse it back to health, but it did not end well.

In fact, we had a rather extensive pet cemetery in the backyard garden, and a lot of them were wild animals. A raccoon, at least one armadillo, a squirrel, two fawns, crayfish, and some mud turtles (though we usually returned the turtles to the river); probably more that I’m forgetting. Part of this urge was just curiosity and wonder, but part of it was fed by books like this one.

As John pointed out to me recently, the title is a play on the old phrase ‘all in the family’, which of course precedes the famous sitcom by many years. This book has some elements that I don’t think would fly in children’s literature today, including a rather cavalier attitude to wild animals. This edition is a reprint from 1996, but it retains all the original illustrations by Robert Frankenberg, which I was glad to find. Here is the old cover I remember: