The Birdman

Troon Harrison, Francois Thisdale (Illustrator)

Red Deer Press (FEBRUARY) Hardcover $24.95 (48pp) 978-0-88995-506-6

A man of many talents who loved nature, Alexander Milton Ross was a little-known hero of the Underground Railroad. He left his home in Canada to tour plantation fields as an ornithologist, secretly helping slaves escape to freedom. Striking illustrations in deep hues are inset over faint outlines of map grids and a naturalist’s notebook of birds and flowers; they add a dreamlike quality to the daring, dangerous tales of a real-life secret agent.