Scoot: A Tiny New York Bird with a Great Big Idea

by Fran Manushkin (Author) Bruce Degen (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

A little sparrow displays big courage as she journeys across the iconic New York City skyline to save a flock of travelling birds. With showstopping artwork from Bruce Degen, illustrator of the Magic School Bus series. Scoot!

Busy people on the bustling New York City streets shout at a little sparrow, but Scoot loves exploring the tasty smells and sparkling sights of the city with her new friend Scram. Busy cabs on Fifth Avenue. Glitzy dancers at Radio City Music Hall. Shoemakers, dressmakers, and bakers working all day. Scoot wants to be a part of it all, but what can a little bird do? "Rise up!" answered Scoot."Follow me! Aim high: I see a way we can helpin the sky!" When flocks of migrating birds get lost among the shiny windows and nighttime lights, Scoot and her new friends guide the birds to safety, discovering that she can do more than get out of the way.

Inspired by the real danger skyscrapers pose to urban wildlife, Fran Manushkin, author of the beloved Katie Woo series and member the New York Audubon Society, has crafted an uplifting tale with an important urban ecological message. Illustrator of beloved children's books like The Magic School Bus series and Jamberry, Bruce Degen captures the dazzling views and lively energy of the city in vibrant gouache. Scoot! tells a classic New York City story from the perspective of the city's most overlooked residents with wonder and heart.

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Hardcover
$18.99

Publisher's Weekly

Snappy, staccato text by Manushkin (Plenty of Hugs) energizes this metropolitan tale about a new New Yorker contributing to the city’s welfare. Nesting on East 88th St., the recently arrived sparrow likes the city views and the smells of food vendors, and when fast-walking New York City pedestrians snap at her for landing on the sidewalk in pursuit of tasty morsels, she takes their exclamation—“Scoot!”—as her name. A wiser sparrow, Scram, gives advice: “Hop right! Hop left! Like so, kid: GO!” The eating is good, but watching working New Yorkers, from “shoemakers, dressmakers, and bakers” to the Rockettes, inspires Scoot. Aiming high, she organizes a crew of New York City sparrows that help migrating birds “dazed by New York’s bright night,” an act that boosts the bird’s self-esteem in the bargain. In architecturally attentive pencil and gouache panels, Degen (the Magic School Bus series) zooms in tight to see action from a sparrow’s-eye view, then pans wide to present famous city landmarks, changing perspectives to chime with the sparky narration in a title that shows how everyone has gifts to give. An author’s note contextualizes the city’s placement on the Atlantic Flyway. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780823442546
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Holiday House
Publication date
October 20, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039140 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance
JUV023000 - Juvenile Fiction | Lifestyles | City & Town Life
JUV029010 - Juvenile Fiction | Nature & the Natural World | Environment
Library of Congress categories
Birds
New York (N.Y.)
Picture books
Migration
House sparrow
Light pollution

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