Text: 3 stars 
 Illustrations: 4 stars 
 Picture book biography about John James Audubon. His bird drawings are discussed, but this book focuses more on his migration tracking experiment and his early life. It's a text-heavy picture book, yet only provides a slice of Audubon's life, not a comprehensive look at his achievements. Bibliography included. 
 While the old-fashioned clothing, mention of "Napoleon's war," and use of candles are all clues that the book is set in the past, I doubt that most picture book readers will be able to figure out the actual time period. At least not until (or unless) they read the single-page bio of Audubon at the back of the book. Why not state the year on the first page of the book's text so that young readers don't have to wonder? 
 The watercolor illustrations are nice, but the more heavily collaged pages (for which Melissa Sweet is known) are spectacular. Unfortunately there is not as much collage in this book as there is in her later work.