Gull Number 737

by Jean Craighead George 

     Luke spends summers with his family in a small building on an island beach, where his father does research on seagull behavior. In particular, he's attempting to recreate experiments done by Dutch scientist Niko Tinbergen, to show that the birds have the same instinctive behavior in completely different areas of the world. I found this particularly delightful, as I've read Tinbergen's book myself, remember it very well and knew exactly what they were talking about. Luke's father is adamant about doing his studies scientifically and collecting enough data- which means repeating the same thing over and over. Luke himself gets frustrated with the tedium of the work, and sees different things in the birds' behavior that he wants to explore, but his dad gets angry and dismissive, sees this as a distraction and doesn't want to go into those other ideas. Luke also has a difficult relationship with his sister, jealous that when she gets a job on a lobster boat against their father's wishes, he lets her go ahead and keep working there, while Luke is forced to continue helping with the gull research. He chafes under his father's rule and wants to find another avenue for himself. Yet at the same time he finds himself becoming fond of certain individual seagulls and interested in their daily doings (some chapters are from the gulls' point of view, which is nice). When the summer winds down his father can't find anyone who will fund continuation of their study, and the reluctant decision is made to close the bird lab. Luke is surprised that he's actually disappointed their summers at the gull rookery might end.

The final chapters take a sudden turn when an accident at a local airport is caused by seagulls and other birds that frequent the airfield (and a man they know from the island was on board, making it very personal). Suddenly his father's knowledge of seagull behavior is in demand, as the airport authorities try to solve their bird problem. Luke gets to see first hand how the research material can be of use in the real world, although he still is at odds with his father, as they have different ideas on what the best solution is.

This book was pretty wonderful. I don't think I've ever read another juvenile fiction that had such a clear picture of field research work before- including the difference between applied and basic research, the struggles to obtain funding, the long boring hours of observation when nothing happens. It's also rather dated- sometimes in a quaint way. I can't imagine a teenager being allowed to just wander through an airport and go up into the traffic control tower! The sister gets roundly chastised for saying a mild swear word at the dinner table (her parents dramatically blame the rough compnay on the lobster boat as a bad influence) and the main character's attitude towards girls- especially his own sister- are rather demeaning even though he means it kindly. I didn't find this bothersome though, it just reminded me soundly of the timeframe.

Rating: 4/5                198 pages, 1964