BIRDS

“In this book, you’ll find out…about birds…from those you see every day to strange birds, and you’ll discover how you can become a bird-watcher.”

Following Plants (2020), Bugs, and Trees (both 2019), Hickman and Gavin have produced another worthy addition to children’s nature shelves, this one focusing on birds that can be observed in Canada and the United States. The text is accessible and graceful. Each short chapter, illustrated with Gavin’s signature, appealing watercolors, has just enough information to whet the appetite for more. Readers are unlikely to forget, for example, that baby herring gulls tap on that red spot on a parent’s beak to release the chick’s food. As in other books in the series, chapters about each season provide an organic way to introduce or flesh out such basic concepts as migration, pollination, and camouflage. Less-common concepts are also clearly explained, as in “determinate” versus “indeterminate layers.” (Yes, some birds keep replacing damaged eggs until they reach a set number.) Occasional sidebars entitled “Strange Birds” mention highly unusual behaviors of specific varieties, including the northern shrike’s impalement of edible victims on thorns to compensate for its tiny, weak feet. Other than that possibly shudder-inducing fact, the text spends most of its time on birds that eat fish, insects, and seeds. Following a formula that works, other pages devote themselves to human threats and remedies, hints for elementary bird-watching, and a craft project. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Excellent for fledgling naturalists.