SO MANY WAYS TO BE A BIRD

A text that explores diversity in birds.

This appealing title showcases some of the most obvious adaptations that differentiate bird species, including size, feet, flight, nests, eggs, hatchlings, beaks, and vocalizations, each in a spread or two. A concluding spread summarizes these adaptations and adds the range of colors, obvious throughout Anderson’s careful collage portraits. She introduces topics in large text using occasional rhyming couplets, internal rhymes, alliteration, and frequent repetition of the phrase “so many ways.” Each spread includes examples, with dozens of labeled species. The birds may be familiar or unfamiliar, but the information will be intriguing—robins have three toes in front and one in back to hold on to a branch while perching; woodpeckers cling to trees with two toes each in front and back; the common murre’s egg is tapered so that it can only roll in a circle, not off the cliff where it was laid. The egg is shown on a spread of variously sized, shaped, and colored eggs, some of which are “wee as a pea.” The narrative reads aloud smoothly, and the illustrations show well. Readers who are also knowledgeable birders will appreciate the way every bird, identified or not, is recognizable. For young readers or browsers, the two-level text offers flexibility. Accurate and interesting facts and imagery will make this a positive addition to readers’ nature collections.

Engaging and informative.