Eggs-actly right for a nature-themed storytime.
To keep their chicks and eggs safe, different bird species make different nests.
For the youngest readers or listeners, this album shows a wide variety of nests sheltering eggs and chicks. On the copyright page, a black-capped chickadee flies with nesting material; at the end of the book, chicks emerge to walk, ride, or fly. Garland selects a variety of bird species from around the globe, guaranteeing that most readers will find some birds they recognize and others that feel exotic. A mourning dove nests in an old boot; ospreys, storks, and eagles seek nesting places high up; and ostriches, flamingos, and Australian pelicans make theirs directly on the ground. Basket nests hang from tree limbs, rest on branches, or cover a whole treetop (a kind of bird apartment house). A brown-headed cowbird takes advantage of someone else’s nest. From the nesting mute swan and cygnets on the title page to the common loon in the water, chicks riding on her back, on the last, Garland's digital art uses scanned wood textures to mimic woodcuts. It will show well to a group. Birds are clearly labeled by common name and by sex where they obviously differ. Species are colored appropriately, the eggs less carefully, but the nests—the focus of this pleasing introduction—are reasonably accurate. The simple narrative arc, from nest-building to the beginnings of chick independence, is appropriate for the youngest readers, and the sense of wonder is palpable.
Eggs-actly right for a nature-themed storytime. (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3662-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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