Crows Calling by Bruce McConnell

An Inspiring Journey into our Better Natures

Date Published: 10-01-2025
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press

Ten-year-old Luz sets out on an overnight camping trip, accompanied by her
spiritual mentor. Peering through a canopy of California redwoods, Luz
witnesses a council of animals confronting the menace of climate change. Led
by a lustrous—and talkative—American Crow named Koro, the animals
weigh their options. Some, like Koro, want to collaborate with humans. Others
doubt humanity’s good intentions. The conversation compels young Luz,
innately in tune with the natural world, to fight passionately in its defense.

At once a work of fact-based activism and a moving coming-of-age, Crows
Calling immerses the reader in a richly-drawn family and community who,
despite their differences, decide to dedicate their lives to the care of
Grandmother Earth. They are not alone. Rather, they are accompanied by a
colorful cast of savvy planimals—bears, coyotes, trees, and even
chickens—with long memories and ancient ways of healing. However, some
damage cannot be undone. Natural disasters, public apathy, and greed threaten
everything that Luz and her friends are working for. Can the cross-species
alliance find unity and resolve the climate crisis?

Excerpt

Before we go any further, I really should introduce myself. I am Koro—a lustrous female American Crow. Surely, when strolling in woods or along an urban lane, you have admired my family’s elegant, iridescent plumage and thrilled to our melodious song. You know of our prodigious memory, of our cleverness spearing hapless grubs from sodden logs with a favored twig.

The glint you see in my ebony eye is a tear shining for my grandmother—the earthly incarnation of generosity, whose bounteous lands and waters make room for every new arrival. Of late, however, one family—relative newcomers—has been pushing her limits, leaving their garbage everywhere and abusing the other guests. They run their noisy engines at all hours. Noxious smoke belches from their cooking fires. Every day, more and more of them come, crowding into other families’ spaces, destroying the homes of many of my friends.

Recognizing our Crow persistence, Grandmother Earth called us to help her get those inconsiderate tenants to clean up their act. Peering into the chasm of the coming Meltdown, I am proud to be on precious Grandmother’s team. My cawcus is responsible for majestic Northern California. The land we cover is a patchwork sprawl of asphalt and forest, garlic and strawberries, oranges and avocados, cattle and sheep raised sustainably and otherwise, bears guttering in their occult tongue, sweet jasmine brandishing her shameless perfume, and sixteen million busy humans.

Through wildfires, drought, floods, extreme heat, even earthquakes, Grandmother is pleading directly with humans. Some hear her message. Take Makah Andrews, professor of International Environmental Policy at Monterey University. Makah’s one of the good ones, trying to use the system to turn itself around. That’s the aim of “Team Grandmother”—a successful turnaround.

What’s that I hear? Ah, please allow me to introduce my most trusted teammate, Ursula, a beautiful California Black Bear who lives around here. Ursula, tell the folks what we’ve been hearing from other nonhuman parts of the natural world, from other planimals, as we call ourselves. Our fellow creatures are getting nervous. Some are angry. That’s why we’re organizing a Congress. …

Bruce McConnell is an agile and accomplished shapeshifter, having flourished as a poet, roofer, artist-blacksmith, mechanical engineer, tenor, business consultant, national security official, non-profit executive, and peacemaker. A collection of his poems, Living from Here, was published by Anvil Press (US). He recently moved to Ashland Oregon to feel closer to his relatives in the natural world. Crows Calling is his first novel.

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