Saving Jemima ~ Review

Saving Jemima
Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay
By Julie Zickefoose

It all started with noticing something where it should not be. While gardening the author found a newly-laid Blue Jay egg on the ground. She replaced it in its nest and then worried about it and its 2 potential siblings. Her fears were confirmed when prey got to 2 of the eggs. She determined to handle its incubation and deal with its raising when it hatched. But the egg died just under 1/2 through the process.

Julie Zickefoose was crushed in a sense after anticipating the drawings she would capture as her little jay grew and developed. When a year later she learned of a nestling jay in dire need she offered to give it immediate temporary care.  But temporary soon grew into something more. This book is the journey that took Jemima from sickly nestling to a wild Blue Jay. The journey was filled with setbacks both for Jemima and Julie. But it is also a journey of discovery and triumph.
I once read the book That Quail, Robert and this book reminded me of it though it has been years since I read it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Amazon's Vine Program with no expectations but that provide my honest opinion.

About the Book:
For fans of Wesley the Owl and The Soul of an Octopus, the story of a sick baby bird nursed back to health and into the wild by renowned writer/artist Julie Zickefoose.

When Jemima, a young orphaned blue jay, is brought to wildlife rehabilitator Julie Zickefoose, she is a virtually tailless, palm-sized bundle of gray-blue fluff. But she is starved and very sick. Julie’s constant care brings her around, and as Jemima is raised for eventual release, she takes over the house and the rest of the author's summer.
 
Shortly after release, Jemima turns up with a deadly disease. But medicating a free-flying wild bird is a challenge. When the PBS show Nature expresses interest in filming Jemima, Julie must train her to behave on camera, as the bird gets ever wilder. Jemima bonds with a wild jay, stretching her ties with the family. Throughout, Julie grapples with the fallout of Jemima’s illness, studies molt and migration, and does her best to keep Jemima strong and wild. She falls hard for this engaging, feisty and funny bird, a creative muse and source of strength through the author’s own heartbreaking changes.

Emotional and honest, Saving Jemima is a universal story of the communion between a wild creature and the human chosen to raise it.