CROWS!

Pringle complements Listen to the Crows (1976), his old standard look at crow communication, with a wider-angled introduction to these wily birds for younger readers. Marstall (A Dragon in the Sky, 2001, etc.) combines photos, computer-manipulated images, and oils for uncluttered scenes of crows near and far, eating, flying, and feeding young. Pringle’s text is sometimes too spare; he exclaims over the “glints of deep blue and purple” in crow feathers without explaining what causes the effect. But lines like, “In one day, a crow’s diet might include berries, pizza, snails, grasshoppers, and some tasty morsels from a dead opossum,” will rivet young naturalists. Filling his pages with lots of fascinating facts, like “crows do not hop as most birds do,” Pringle inspires readers to want to know more. His closing point, that crows should not be categorized as helpful or harmful (they can be both), but “simply part of nature,” is a thought worth provoking. (afterword) (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)