IF I WERE A BIRD

Young readers are introduced to a host of information on birds.

Rhyming text and attractive, realistic illustrations present information on flight and other bird habits as well as the names of quite a few. The information can at times be confusing. For example, the first double-page spread states “If I were a bird, / you know what I’d try? / Flying wing tip to wing tip / in a forest flyby!” Unfortunately, the illustration depicts but one owl in flight. Readers will be left wondering what “wing tip to wing tip” means. In another example rhyme takes precedence over clarity: “Geese and cranes follow trails / etched in memory flyways, / carved in currents and gales, / the planet’s bird highways.” It’s hard to imagine many children in the target audience will be able to understand that stanza as describing migration—if they even know what that is. The companion book, If I Were a Bear, while also presenting its information in rhyming text and attractive, realistic illustrations, does not present the same shortcomings as its companion in introducing several kinds of bears and their habits. Young readers will learn that beyond brown bears and polar bears, there are blue bears and Kermode bears—black bears that are born white.

Ephemeral, unlike its companion.