Birds

Husband-and-wife team Henkes and Dronzek ("Oh!") record random thoughts about birds, enlivened by vignettes of thickly outlined bird shapes feathered with primary-school paintbox colors. Observations as spare as haikuSometimes, in winter, a bird in a tree looks like one red leaf left overare pictured wistfully; here, a cardinal perches, leaf-like, on a high branch of a leafless tree. The appeal throughout is Henkes's ability to channel the way young children think (If birds made marks with their tail feathers when they flew, think what the sky would look like) and see (If there are lots of birds in one tree and they all fly away at the same time, it looks like the tree yelled, 'SURPRISE!' ). Although the artwork most often follows the text's lead, richer moments come when Dronzek steps forward and does the imagining. If clouds were birds, the sky would look like this, Henkes writes; with a dry, loosely wielded brush, Dronzek paints bird-shaped silhouettes of clouds tinted the same color as the setting sun they soar over. A kind of book of meditations for the very young, its reflective tone and peaceful illustrations make this an excellent bedtime choice. Ages 25. "(Mar.)" Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-KThis brief introduction to birds focuses on such basic features as their different colors and sizes. Soft acrylic paintings that appear as spreads, vignettes, and framed scenes match a text that perfectly conveys the young narrator's fascination with the birds in her environment. "Once I saw seven birds on the telephone wire. They didn't move and they didn't move and they didn't move. I looked away for just a second]." Three lines of identically positioned birds on wires appear with the text across the spread. Then a page turn reveals a thick, black, empty wire stretched across a stark white spread along with the words "and they were gone." The youngster imagines what the sky would look like if the birds could make marks with their tails and how bird-clouds would look during the day and at night. She can't really fly like the birds, but the final page demonstrates one way in which she can imitate them. The child voice in this charming story is just right and will resonate with the very youngest children. And the little girl's musings can encourage more "what if" conversations that will spark their imaginations."Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT" Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.