BIRDS Are Back: Two Great Titles

ROARING BROOK PRESS, 2020

Can there ever be TWO MANY BIRDS? Of course not! Written and illustrated by Cindy Derby, this seemingly simple picture book presents fun for the littlest audiences and insights for teen social dynamics studies. 

A bossy and controlling VIB  (Very Important Bird) restricts access to the ONLY available tree, topping that with arbitrary and rather obnoxious rules. It's entirely (and playfully) predictable that VIB would loudly object to two eggs that hatch, putting the residency count over the arbitrary 100 mark. Despite VIB  grumbles, mother bird and 99 other birds who had made it into the stark branches of that singular tree are celebratory.

What happens next is far less predictable, but packed with visual fun and developments that draw on real world nature as well as "human" nature.

There's much here to enjoy, first, and then to spark conversations. For starters, to provide for everyone it doesn't mean making smaller slices of the pie, but making the pie bigger! (or growing more trees!)

Plenty, too, to spark comparisons of these comical little feathered ones to real birds and their features, reduced habitats, the power of collective responses, and dealing with demanding personalities with arbitrary rules.

These funny "birdbrains" can teach us all a thing or two.

EERDMANS Books for Young Readers
2025

FLY LIKE A BIRD is written and illustrated by OLGA PTASHNIK. This new release takes a direct approach to blending fiction with facts. Although a young chickadee voices parts of the narrative, and is attributed with very human concerns involving growth, change, and readiness to launch, the clarity of which is effectively conveyed.

Nonfiction content about actual bird specifies, flight, and other patterns is printed in blue, while a presumed fledgling is going through a coming-of-flight story with concerns about flying, a transition on which its life depends. This gorgeously illustrated picture book is both impressionistic and realistic in aspects of various birds and their relationships to flight. The narrative for the cautious character will resonate with young readers facing any and all bridges to new frontiers and expectations. |

Double-spread back pages showcase spot images of the eleven birds from the main text with short passages that add interesting  information.

I'm featuring this pair together because they offer a rich opportunity to share and compare picture books in ways that might surprise and delight both the young reader and the adults in their lives. I hope you'll give these a try and then launch them into the lives of kids.