Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World is a sunny picture book biography about how Gene Stratton-Porter became The Bird Woman of the Limberlost Swamp. Today, Stratton-Porter is best known for her novels such as Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost, but first she was a nature writer and photographer.
Geneva Stratton, the youngest of her parents’ twelve children, grew up on a farm in Indiana. As a child, she was given an unusual amount of freedom to roam and explore nature, and she had a particular love for birds. When the family moved to town when Geneva was eleven, she took nine caged birds with her!
When Geneva grew up, she preferred to be called Gene. After she was married, she was able to move back to the country. Once, when the family was laughing about the antics of Gene’s daughter’s pet parrot, Gene commented that she wished she had a camera. Her daughter made sure Gene got one for Christmas. Gene taught herself how to use the camera and how to develop her own photographs, and she began exploring the Limberlost Swamp. She became an expert on the habits of the birds of the Limberlost and risked life and limb to get photographs of them in their natural surroundings.
“Gene has also rediscovered the boundless and bone-deep love of nature she knew as a child. Every blooming, buzzing, chirping, croaking fluttering bit of it. Let it go? Never again. But she’ll happily share it with the world.”
This book is a cheerful introduction to the life of Gene Stratton-Porter. If you would like to know more, A Little Story of Her Life and Work is a great next read.