YOU AND THE BOWERBIRD

The stressful courtship ritual of a male bowerbird, as seen by a young observer.

Satin Bowerbirds are native to Australia, and during mating season the males build elaborate structures on the ground out of natural and found blue materials—buttons, bottle caps, pieces of glass, even socks—to attract females. It is not an easy job—not only are the females picky, but rival males will swoop in at the slightest opportunity to steal the best bits and mess up the rest. Here Gianferrari records the ups and downs of Satin, one such hopeful swain, as he carefully builds and rebuilds his bower, drives off interlopers, and dances enthusiastically when green-feathered Pea, a likely looking prospect, doubtfully lands for a lookie-loo. There’s really nothing for it but to cheer him on. Playing this arduous ritual as a romantic comedy, Wicks depicts Satin looking over his bower with a critical eye, fussing over it, expressing confusion and astonishment when he returns from various forays to find it wrecked, and climactically casting a flirtatious side-eye at Pea as she watches him flapping and high-stepping. A dark-skinned child in the illustrations, watching all of this as raptly as readers will, fills notebooks with sketches and comments and provides a satisfying sense of closure by later spotting Pea in a tree, presiding over a nest full of eggs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Delightful, tongue in cheek, and compellingly romantic.