FLIP-A-FEATHER

A split-page format turns 10 birds into hundreds of avian chimeras in this mix-and-match portrait gallery.

As in her equally fetching Mix-a-Mutt (2018), Ball uses empty backgrounds to showcase invitingly big, bright, exactly detailed animals that somehow seem to be smiling up at viewers or down at fuzzy offspring even though they’re not anthropomorphized. The book is read by rotating it 90 degrees to the right; with the spine at the top, readers can then manipulate as many layers of the triple-split board pages as they want. Flipping heads, bodies, and hindquarters results in some odd combinations (“I’m a Snowy Owl—Ostrich—Bald Eagle bird”), but the subjects are placed, posed, and scaled so that aside from radical changes in color or type of plumage, even the most unlikely transitions at least match neatly. To Ball’s concept and illustrations Bucca adds bland but informative first-person commentary (“I make the largest tree nest in the world. It’s full of soft grass and feathers to keep my eaglets comfortable”); a helpful chart detailing each bird’s specific name, range, and diet appears on the front endpaper. The actual bird names alone are worthy of recitation: “salmon-crested cockatoo,” “resplendent quetzal,” “keel-billed toucan,” “marvelous spatuletail hummingbird."

Engaging flights of fancy and fact.