Owly is a small round owl who has a house at the top of a tree.  He lives alone, feeding the neighborhood birds with seeds he buys in the local nursery and doing arts-and-crafts projects. One day it begins to downpour, and Owly finds a bedraggled worm drowning in a puddle. He rescues the unconscious worm, bringing him to his home and giving him shelter from the storm. But when the worm wakes up, he’s aghast to find himself trapped at the top of a tree with an owl!  After some conversation, the worm, Wormy, and Owly make friends, and Wormy recounts how he was swept from his home in the downpour. Wormy and Owly go on a quest to find his parents. Then two hummingbirds migrate to the area that Owly lives in.  He and Wormy make friends with them, only to find that they migrate south in the winter.Â
Owly, vol. 1: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer is a great book for beginning readers. Not only does it have a cute, likeable main character, but it’s also mostly wordless – Owly speaks largely in idea bubbles (to say ‘good luck’ he makes a speech bubble with a horseshoe and an exclamation mark in it, and to say ‘we should make a map’ he thinks of a map and drawing implements). Owly, vol. 1: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer is a wonderful story about friendship and caring.
Owly, vol. 1: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer
by Andy Runton
ISBNP: 9781891830624
Top Shelf Productions, 2004
