birds

Review: I Hatched! by Jill Esbaum

| Tasha

i hatched

I Hatched! by Jill Esbaum, illustrated by Jen Corace

An exuberant chick hatches from an egg and merrily dashes through his first day in this spring picture book.  The chick quickly discovers that it has long legs and can really run.  While running, he discovers a frog, water, worms and many other things in his environment.  He learns to sing as well as poop as his day continues.  In the evening after returning to the nest, he gets a surprise when another egg cracks open.  Now he can be the expert and show his new sister everything!  Maybe.

This book is pure bottled joy.  The little chick is wildly positive and vivacious.  He captures the delight of babies in their world and invites readers to see things with fresh eyes as well.  Esbaum makes it clear that he is a killdeer with his long legs, his song and the way he acts.  It’s a pleasure to see a book about a bird in a nest on the ground, running fast that is not about learning to fly but more about being an individual and safely learning new things.

Corace’s illustrations reflect the same cheery delight.  They celebrate the little bird’s markings, the challenge of hatching from an egg, and happily show all that he explores in his first day.  They have a lightness and humor about them too.

Toddlers will enjoy this book that mirrors their own enthusiasm.  Perfect for spring story times with little ones.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial.

Review: Aviary Wonders Inc. Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual by Kate Samworth

| Tasha

aviary wonders

Aviary Wonders Inc. Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual by Kate Samworth

Birds are steadily going extinct, but Aviary Wonders Inc. has the solution.  Ever since 2031, they have been providing a fun and engaging way to create your own avian companion.  Each bird is made up of high-quality parts that you can put together in unique ways that never existed in nature.  You can keep your bird or set it free.  Teach it to sing and fly.  Assembly is as easy as putting together a book case.  To get started, just select the body type that you want to start with.  After that, you can pick out the beak, tail, legs, feet, wings and crests.  Assembly instructions are included in the book as are directions for feeding and caring for your pet bird.  This clever and creepy look at a potential future for birds serves as a warning for all.

Samworth marries a warning about loss of habitat and food for birds with a catalog that hearkens back to turn of the century catalogs and the wonders they contained.  There is definitely a strange and frightening factor on every page.  While the beaks, tails and wings are beautifully drawn, the images of the beakless birds turns it all odd and stomach-twisting.  It is that interplay of disturbing and lovely that makes the book very effective.

The art in the book is a large part of its success.  Samworth honors the variety and beauty of birds while also making them firmly her own with the wild colors, naming of the different styles, and hawking of her “wares.”  The image of the sepia-toned beakless, legless and featherless bird resting on a pillow is profoundly wrong in just the right way. 

Full of black humor, creepy sales pitch jargon and a message of how close we are to truly losing entire types of creatures, this book is beautiful, moving and frightening.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Feathers by Melissa Stewart

| Tasha

feathers

Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen

Feathers do so many things for birds and this book looks at all of the ways that feathers help birds in the wild.  Sixteen different birds are featured in the book, each one with a specific focus on what they use their feathers for.  There is the wood duck who lines her nest with feathers to keep her eggs cushioned.  The red-tailed hawk uses their feather to protect them from the sun as they fly for hours.  Other birds use their feathers in unique ways like the rosy-faced lovebird who tucks nesting materials into her rump feathers to take back to where she is building her nest.  Towards the end of the book, the author looks at all of the different sorts of feathers that birds have.

Stewart tells readers in her Author Note that this was a book she had worked on for some time as an idea.  Her use of metaphors to show what feathers do is an inspired choice, making the book all the more accessible for children.  She provides details with specific birds, explaining how they use their feathers and also providing little pieces of information on how the birds live and their habitats.

The watercolor illustrations are done to look like a naturalists field journal with scraps of paper, loose feathers, notes, cup rings, and scraps of fabric.  All of the images of the birds have their locations as well, adding to the field journal feel.  The result is  richly visual book that may inspire readers to start their own bird journals.

This is a book that will instruct and amaze, just the right sort of science book for young readers.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Charlesbridge.

Review: Winston & George by John Miller

| Tasha

winston george

Winston & George by John Miller, illustrated by Giuliano Cucco

Released March 21, 2014.

Winston is a crocodile and George is a crocodile bird, the kind of bird that cleans a crocodile’s skin.  The two of them would fish together in the river with George calling out when he saw a fish and Winston diving into the water to catch it.  Then they would share the meal together on shore.  But George had the bad habit of playing pranks on all of the crocodiles as well as on Winston.  The other crocodiles tell Winston to just eat George to end the problem, but Winston can’t eat his friend.  Then George takes a prank too far and puts Winston’s life in danger.  He has to convince the other crocodiles and animals to help, but at what price?

Written and illustrated 50 years ago, this picture book is finally being published.  Unfortunately, the illustrator died in 2006, so he did not live to see this work finally come to the public.  Happily though, the book is fresh and vibrant with a wonderful vintage feel that makes it feel like an immediate classic.  Miller’s words are simple and drive the story forward at a fast pace.  The ending is immensely satisfying and sharing it aloud one can expect cheers of joy and relief.

Cucco’s illustrations are superb.  They have a wonderful grace of line combined with bright tropical colors that pop on the page.  The dramatic moments of the book are captured with plenty of motion and action.  Best of all, the humor of the text translates directly into humor of image. 

A humorous and dramatic look at an unusual friendship, one only wishes that Winston & George could go on more adventures together.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion Books.

Review: Nest by Jorey Hurley

| Tasha

nest

Nest by Jorey Hurley

This simple and elegant picture book takes a look at a year in the life of a robin.  It begins with an egg in a nest and two proud parents.  By the next page, the egg has hatched into one very hungry baby bird.  As the tree flowers, the little bird is fed by its parents.  Then comes the first flight as a speckled robin chick.  There are berries on the tree to feast on and when autumn comes the green leaves have turned orange and yellow and started to fall.  The last of the berries are eaten while snow flies in the sky.  As spring returns, the young robin meets another young robin and they build their own nest together.  All of this is told in images since the text of the book is simple single words on each double-spread picture.  This is a beautiful and impressive book for the youngest children.

Hurley’s illustrations are strong and clear.  Done in PhotoShop, the illustrations have the feel of cut-paper collage in their simplicity.  They will project well to a group of children.  The storyline is far more than the words on the page, and children will want to discuss what is happening throughout the book. 

A wonderful pick for spring units, this book is a celebration of nature and seasons.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

Review: The Message of the Birds by Kate Westerlund

| Tasha

message of the birds

The Message of the Birds by Kate Westerlund, illustrated by Feridun Oral

The old owl tells the story of Christmas to a gather of birds.  He tells the story of Jesus in the manger and the birds above in the rafters.  The birds heard a song in the baby’s voice, a special song that they would carry through the world.  The robin asked why the birds don’t sing that song anymore, and the partridge explained that people don’t listen.  The little robin suggested that even if they don’t know the language anymore, their hearts could understand it.  The birds talk about whether the message would be heard and understood, and then the robin realizes that children are the most likely to hear the message.  So all of the birds sing the song, spread the message, particularly to children.  And something amazing happens.

I’m never sure with any Christmas book what level of Christianity I’m going to find in them and then what type of message it is going to be communicating.  When this book’s second set of pages had the manger scene, I thought I was in a very traditional Christmas book.  What followed though, was a delightful surprise as the book immediately turned from the traditional Christmas tale to one that is universal, a story of peace.  Westerlund tells the story with a pacing right out of folktales.  Her wise older owl, the inventive young robin are characters that are traditional in the best sense of the word.

Oral’s illustrations have a soft beauty to them.  Throughout his images of the birds, there is thick snow in the air.  The colors are consistently subtle and wintry, tawny browns, creamy whites and deep browns are punctuated only with the colors of the birds and the green of the trees. 

A lovely addition to Christmas stories, this book is beautifully written with rich illustrations.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth

| Tasha

parrots over puerto rico

Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore

This exceptional nonfiction picture book tells the story of the Puerto Rican parrot.  It is a bird that has flown over Puerto Rico for millions of years but almost became extinct in the 1960s.  The book tells of the changes that came to Puerto Rico and its environment thanks to settlers, wars, hunting, and foreign invasive species.  Forests began to disappear too, so the parrots were limited to living in just one place.  By 1967, only 24 parrots lived in Puerto Rico.  With them almost extinct, people started trying to save the parrots.  The book tells the story of rescued parrots, storms and the dedicated scientists who figured out how to save this species from disappearing entirely.

Roth and Trumbore tell this story deftly.  They focus on what was almost lost, a sky crowded with these blue and green birds.  The book explores the history of Puerto Rico, tying it closely and innately into the story of the parrots themselves.  The entire book is fascinating and becomes even more compelling when the story turns to the rescue efforts.  Small victories such as saving a young parrot’s wings are celebrated, while the larger effort is also looked at in detail. 

Roth’s collages are exquisite.  She captures the beauty of the birds, as you can see from the cover image above, but also the beauty of Puerto Rico itself with all of its lush greens.  The book is beautifully designed as well.

A dazzling nonfiction book that will be welcome in classroom discussions and units about conservation and environment.  Appropriate for ages 7-9.

Reviewed from digital copy received from Lee & Low and Edelweiss.

Review: Hello, My Name Is Ruby by Philip C. Stead

| Tasha

hello my name is ruby

Hello, My Name Is Ruby by Philip C. Stead

Ruby is a little bird who is eager to make new friends.  So she introduces herself to every animal she meets.  She’s also eager to learn all sorts of things so she asks all sorts of questions.  Along her journey, she meets different birds who travel in different ways, a giraffe, and many more.  Finally, she meets a bird who doesn’t sing like Ruby does, but he has heard Ruby’s name before.  So he takes her there and suddenly Ruby fits in, but a little bird like Ruby is completely unique so she manages to stand out anyway.

Filled with the same solid writing and art as his previous books, Stead has created a shining new protagonist here in little Ruby.  She is so similar to many children who are fearless when meeting strangers and eager to have conversations about anything at all.  There are many children who will see themselves and their energy in Ruby.  Stead puts page breaks at wonderful points in the story, creating stand-alone moments of flight and friendship that are exceptional.

As always, Stead’s art is stellar.  He manages in just a few lines and the tip of a head to capture Ruby’s spirit and vibrancy.  In the end, the range of Ruby’s friends is shone as a group and the image just sings.

A tiny but oh so impressive little bird will steal your heart in this vibrant picture book. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Review: Caterina and the Perfect Party by Erin Eitter Kono

| Tasha

caterina and the perfect party

Caterina and the Perfect Party by Erin Eitter Kono

Caterina is planning a party and she just knows that it is going to be perfect.  She creates the most inviting invitations, cooks the most delicious food, and hangs the best decorations she can craft.  Everything seems to be going perfectly, even with the twists thrown in by her little brother Leo.  But when the day of the party arrives, so does a great big storm.  Suddenly things are no longer perfect.  Everything is drenched, there is mud and puddles everywhere, and nothing is going as planned.  But one list does turn out to be the most important of all, her list of friends. 

This is a cheery book that avoids being too sweet thanks to the character of the little brother and the interrupting storm.  It is a book that will speak to children who enjoy having everything planned out and want things to be perfect.  But it is also one that spontaneous children will feel very comfortable reading too.  I particularly enjoyed that Caterina does all of the crafting and cooking herself.  Even better, that is not the part that goes wrong as I initially thought it might. 

Even though Caterina is a planner, she also has a spark of spontaneity to her that makes her much more relatable.  The little issues her brother creates are incorporated into her final designs without much fuss.  She also does not sulk at the end of the book about the failed plans, quickly adapting to the new party that is happening around her. 

Cheerful and warm, this book would make a great pick for reading at any celebration or crafting program.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial.