Twilight Hunt is by Narelle Oliver, who is the author and illustrator.
According to eHow.com: “Screech owls prefer small rodents, worms and lizards but will also hunt for large nocturnal insects such as moths and crickets, which are more prevalent.” I had to look that up after reading the children’s book, TWILIGHT HUNT: SEEK-AND-FIND-BOOK by Narelle Oliver. I knew that owls eat mice but they do not in this story, probably so as to not scare children. The owl has some trouble with escaping bugs, and finally catches a Luna Moth. Luna Moths only live about a week, so it seemed unfair to me that it should be caught. Luna Moths glow and so this might make sense as owls hunt at night.Oh, well, I’ll get over it! The Luna Moth has no mouth so it doesn’t stand a chance anyway.
This book is very cleverly made to show the trickery of camouflage and disguise of animals. When I first looked at some of the pages I though maybe the hidden pictures were later in the book, but when I let my eyes adjust I could see the different animals hiding. To be sure, you can check the key in the back of the book. Nonfiction information is provided at the very end which further describes the differences between camouflage, disguise, and behavior. Some animals use multiple means of hiding such as the Katydid, as it is green and so merges with the leaves, but the overall shape is like a single leaf. Quite tricky!
The author and illustrator of this book, Narelle Oliver, grew up in Australia in a family that spent much time on the visual arts. They made special trips to gather ideas and material for artwork. She drew ideas while exploring a prairie in Illinois, and made the drawings into linocut prints for this book. Children will enjoy finding all the animals hiding in the pictures.
Thanks for reading, Carolyn
