Five Busy Beavers / Cinq Joyeux castors

Five busy beavers building up a dam,
closing up the river where the salmon swam.
Gnawing down trees and ferrying the logs.
Slapping on the mud that they gathered from the bog.
Along came a muskrat who wanted to play,
and one little beaver swam away.

A couple of years ago there was a big flood in Haliburton. A lot of debris washed up onto our beach including a beaver stick. It was so neat to see the beaver's teeth marks where it had gnawed the branch down. The bark and cambium (soft layer below the bark) had been stripped and eaten. As I held that beaver stick in my hand, I started thinking about how hard beavers work. Five Busy Beavers is a catchy rhyme that counts down from five until there is only one hardworking beaver left. The others disappeared one by one, called away to play by their animal friends — a muskrat, a heron, a frog and a turtle. When the fifth tired beaver finally heads back to the lodge the friends have a big surprise in store!

The paperback and hardcover editions include a facts page at the back, along with information about each animal featured in the book/

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