40 Fun Facts About A Nest for Celeste

A Nest for Celeste is set on a plantation in which Southern state, where Audubon painted birds in 1821?

Louisiana is where the real John James Audubon spent the summer of 1821 as a house guest. The story watches his visit through the eyes of a mouse living in the same house.

What kind of bird is Lafayette, the talkative friend who befriends a mouse in A Nest for Celeste?

An osprey is a surprising friend for a mouse, since most birds of prey would happily eat one. Lafayette even gives Celeste a ride through the sky.

Which animals bully Celeste the mouse and force her to fetch food for them in A Nest for Celeste?

Rats named Illianna and Trixie barge into Celeste's nook, raid her food stores and nip her when she objects. They send her out to gather table scraps while the humans are still eating.

Where does Joseph, John James Audubon's young assistant, carry Celeste on outdoor trips in A Nest for Celeste?

His shirt pocket becomes Celeste's lookout, so she watches the bird hunts and sketching trips up close. Joseph feeds her and confides in her along the way.

What does Celeste find in the attic of the plantation house that becomes her home in A Nest for Celeste?

A dollhouse in the attic turns out to be just her size, complete with tiny furniture. Before finding it, Celeste tries nesting in several far less cosy spots.

How does John James Audubon get most birds to hold still for his paintings in A Nest for Celeste?

They are shot first, then pinned into position, which horrifies Celeste. The real Audubon worked the same way, bringing birds down with fine shot before he painted them.

Huge flocks of which bird, hunted in A Nest for Celeste, vanished forever when the last one died in 1914?

Passenger pigeon flocks once numbered in the billions, making the species the most abundant bird in North America. Hunting and forest clearing wiped it out within a century.

In the sequel Another Quest for Celeste, the mouse befriends which future president as a boy on the frontier?

Abraham Lincoln is a young woodcutter on the frontier when the sequel opens in 1822. The story shows the hard life his family led long before the White House.

The giant sheets of paper used for John James Audubon's famous bird prints were named after which animal?

Elephant was the printers' name for a very large sheet, and Audubon chose the double elephant size, more than three feet tall. Even so, the biggest birds had to bend to fit the page.

Lafayette, the big bird of prey in A Nest for Celeste, belongs to a species that eats almost nothing but what?

Fish make up about 99 percent of this raptor's diet, caught in feet-first plunges into the water. That is why a mouse like Celeste has little to fear from Lafayette.

Which craft does Celeste the mouse practice at her worktable, using dried grasses, in A Nest for Celeste?

Weaving baskets is Celeste's great talent, and hers are tight enough to hold water or honey. The skill later rescues her when she is stranded far from the house.

Where is Celeste's hidden nook at the start of A Nest for Celeste, before a chase drives her upstairs?

Under the dining room is the perfect spot for collecting crumbs that fall from the family table. Celeste creeps up to gather them only at night, keeping to the shadows.

Which gray predator stalks Celeste throughout A Nest for Celeste and traps her away from her nook?

A cat patrols the plantation house, and one close call leaves Celeste unable to get back to her nook. The chase ends in Joseph's room, where her luck finally changes.

Cornelius, the caged bird that Celeste befriends in Joseph's room in A Nest for Celeste, is what kind of bird?

A wood thrush, Cornelius is captured so that Audubon can paint his portrait. Celeste keeps him company until the day he says goodbye.

Cornelius, Celeste's caged friend in A Nest for Celeste, belongs to a bird species celebrated for what?

Its flute-like song is often called the most beautiful of any North American bird. The male can produce two notes at once, which gives the tune its haunting sound.

Which real plantation, home of the Pirrie family who host Audubon, is the setting of A Nest for Celeste?

Oakley is where the real Audubon created or began 32 of his bird paintings. He lived in the house for about four months.

Besides drawing, which skill does Audubon promise to teach the plantation owner's daughter in A Nest for Celeste?

Dancing lessons are part of the bargain that lets Audubon stay, and he arrives with the newest steps from Paris. The real Audubon earned his keep the same way, as tutor to the owners' teenage daughter.

Which part of John James Audubon's bird paintings is his young assistant Joseph asked to paint in A Nest for Celeste?

The plant backgrounds were the real Joseph's speciality, and Audubon thought he drew flowers better than probably any man in America. More than 50 of them reached the finished book.

Which author and illustrator, already known for dozens of picture books, created A Nest for Celeste as a first novel?

Henry Cole filled the novel with hundreds of his own drawings, some spreading right across two pages. Amazon named it a Best Book of the Month when it came out.

The hundreds of black-and-white illustrations that fill A Nest for Celeste were drawn in which medium?

Pencil drawings cover whole spreads of the novel, shifting between a mouse's-eye view and wide scenes of the house. Reviewers said the art mattered as much as the words.

Which piece of Joseph's clothing does Celeste choose for a new nest after fleeing upstairs in A Nest for Celeste?

A boot left in the guest room gives Celeste a snug hiding place down in its toe. Joseph finds her there and, instead of chasing her off, treats her gently.

Which outdoor danger, brought on by a violent rainstorm, leaves Celeste lost and far from home in A Nest for Celeste?

A flooded creek carries Celeste far from the house, and she must use her wits and her clever paws to get back. Her bird friends help when pluck alone is not enough.

How does Celeste help captured birds in A Nest for Celeste when John James Audubon wants their portraits?

She coaches them to pose, which spares them a far worse fate. Lafayette strikes a proud stance for his own portrait.

Which feeling do Celeste and Joseph share that draws the mouse and the boy together in A Nest for Celeste?

Homesickness weighs on Joseph, a boy working weeks of travel away from his parents. Celeste, who has just lost her own nook, understands exactly how he feels.

Joseph, the young assistant in A Nest for Celeste, has left his parents behind in which Ohio city?

Cincinnati is where the real Joseph became Audubon's pupil in 1820, before the pair set off south together. He went back there two years later to help his widowed mother.

The boy Joseph in A Nest for Celeste is based on a real apprentice of Audubon with which surname?

Mason was still a boy when he joined Audubon's expedition, rowing the boat and ferrying supplies as well as painting. He travelled with the artist for about two years.

Publishers Weekly compared the cinematic drawings in A Nest for Celeste to which Caldecott-winning illustrated novel?

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, also tells much of its story through runs of full-page drawings. The reviewer made the comparison because both books read a little like films.

Before making children's books, the author of A Nest for Celeste spent about fifteen years in which job?

Science teacher was his job from 1984 to 1999, and a love of the outdoors runs through his books. He had studied forestry at university.

Which monumental book of 435 hand-coloured prints grew out of paintings John James Audubon began in the 1820s?

The Birds of America was issued in sections between 1827 and 1838, a few plates at a time. Dozens of its pictures were begun during the 1821 stay shown in the novel.

Which great river did John James Audubon and young Joseph travel down to reach the setting of A Nest for Celeste?

The Mississippi carried the pair south by boat from 1820, with Audubon sketching birds along the way. He set out with little more than a gun, a paintbox and his young helper.

At what scale did John James Audubon insist on painting every bird, from tiny warblers to tall cranes?

Life-size was his rule, which is why tall birds twist their necks to stay on the page. In A Nest for Celeste he shows his hosts a duck painted at full scale.

Which enormous goal does John James Audubon announce to his hosts at dinner in A Nest for Celeste?

Painting every American bird meant years of travel through forests and swamps. The real Audubon ended up picturing nearly 500 species.

In Another Quest for Celeste, which kind of vessel carries the mouse hundreds of miles from her home?

A steamboat takes Celeste north by accident, and a run of mishaps leaves her stranded on the frontier. The sequel appeared in 2018, eight years after the first book.

John James Audubon, the French-speaking artist in A Nest for Celeste, was born in which present-day Caribbean country?

Haiti was the French colony of Saint-Domingue when Audubon was born on his father's sugar plantation there. He grew up in France and crossed to America in 1803.

With more than 300 drawings in his portfolio, John James Audubon sailed in 1826 to which country to get them printed?

England was his landing place, at Liverpool, after a voyage on a cotton ship. Nearly all of the plates were then engraved and coloured in a London workshop.

Which material did John James Audubon run through his bird models to hold them in lifelike positions for painting?

Wire let Audubon bend wings and necks into active stances, where other naturalists drew stiff stuffed birds. He once demonstrated the method to scientists in Edinburgh.

The creator of A Nest for Celeste also illustrated which picture book about two male penguins raising a chick?

And Tango Makes Three is based on a real pair of chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo. For several years it was the most challenged book in American libraries.

Another Quest for Celeste carries the mouse far north to the 1822 frontier of which state?

Indiana is where Celeste ends up after her river journey goes wrong. She finds new woodland friends in the forests in the south of the state.

What is the first name of the Pirrie daughter whom Audubon tutors at the plantation in A Nest for Celeste?

Eliza was a teenager when the real Audubon spent four months teaching her to draw. In the novel her father wants her dancing properly before the local suitors come courting.

What has the real plantation house from A Nest for Celeste, built around 1806, become today?

A state historic site named for Audubon now protects the house and about 100 acres of grounds. Visitors can walk the woods where he searched for birds.