BRAVE BABY HUMMINGBIRD: What a Wonder!

 Anyone who reads my posts will know that I am an unabashed bird lover. Any book that involves birds, especially books that reveal deep understanding of actual species and their traits,  has my attention immediately. If the subject happens to be birds that I've personally experienced,  the book has an enormous head start to my heart. This next picture book scores on every point and doesn't disappoint. 

A Paula Wiseman Book, 2024
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

BRAVE BABY HUMMINGBIRD is written by superb nonfiction author Sy Montgomery, and illustrated by Tiffany Bozic. Each of these creators is a nature-specialist in their own right, but together  their work transports readers into the actual world of two actual baby hummingbirds. It is rare for even one hummingbird (of any age) to survive the conditions or events that might deposit them into untrained hands, but these two landed with a knowledgeable naturalist who knows how to ask the right questions. 

(As a former licensed wildlife rescuer, I was concerned that the story told might encourage readers to attempt to raise or rehabilitate wild birds themselves, but Montgomery's author note and back matter makes clear the importance of caring for wildlife properly. "The voice", who represents the human giving care to the orphaned hummingbird pair, mentions having ten years of training to know when, how, and why to prepare the hummers for the real world. 

Montgomery offers many ways in which people can help on their own while still providing these critters with the skilled and trained support they require.)

I'm not usually a fan of assuming a first-person voice to convey realistic information from an animal subject, but this is an example of doing it well. More than well. There is very little attempt to suggest emotions and motivations, other than the realistic hunger and fear experienced when the parent hummer does not return to the nest. Otherwise, the narrative reveals observations, reactions, impulses, and actions that carry readers through the first full year of life for two hummers hatched in a nutshell sized nest, born the size of a bumblebee. Everything described reveals Montgomery's research into the process of raising and releasing baby birds, particularly hummingbirds, while celebrating their uniquely small size and remarkable flight patterns. 

The illustrations are both accurately detailed and inspiringly artistic, elevating an already jaw-dropping species to near-magical. Each visual element adds to the information base readers gain in exploring this lovely and lively book. 

As a side note, this is another of those picture books that will hook adults. I suspect that Montgomery may have read a memoir/informational book about humming birds that I often recommend. Anyone who is intrigued with hummers should seek it out: 

FASTEST THINGS ON WINGS: RESCUING HUMMINGBIRDS IN HOLLYWOOD, by Terry Masear, Harper Collins, 2016.