My children and I love exploring new books together. Both my kids, and especially my toddler son, love books about birds. Our home library now contains quite a few titles about birds. Thus, when recently offered the chance to review Look, See the Bird! written by Bill Wilson and Katie Fallon with illustrations by Leigh Anne Carter in exchange for my honest opinion, I eagerly accepted the opportunity to add a new title to my home library. The 32-page hardback book currently costs $7.69 on Amazon with a list price of $12.50.
Authors/Illustrator
Author Bill Wilson has over 30 years of domestic and international experience as a consumer-marketing expert. He is also the co-founder of Birds & Beans® Coffee, which is the only coffee brand in the United States that solely roasts Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center ‘Bird Friendly®’ certified beans, 100% shade grown, organic, and Fair-Trade certified coffee. As a for-profit conservation business aimed at helping stop songbird population decline, Birds & Beans conservation is a partner of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy.
Author Katie Fallon is a nature writer, educator, and wild bird rehabilitator who also wrote Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird and Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird, which was a finalist for the Reed Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment. She has taught writing at Virginia Tech and West Virginia University and is a founder of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia.
Illustrator Leigh Anne Carter is a naturalist and freelance illustrator. After pursuing an education in science illustration in California, she moved back to her native city of Charlotte, North Carolina. She illustrated The Birds of Mecklenburg County and is involved in local conservation efforts and education.
Synopsis
Recommended for young readers between the ages of 3 and 7 in preschool through second grade, Look, See the Bird! aims both to promote the curiosity that children have about the natural world and to establish the universal quality of having a connection with nature. The book visits children in various locations in North America from as far south as Nicaragua in Central America to Canada in the north. The story begins with coffee plants in the shade of trees on a Nicaraguan farm with siblings Ruben and Maria looking at birds. As the birds migrate north for the summer, other children explain, “Look! See the bird?” In the end, all the birds return back to Nicaragua for the winter. The final pages of the book provide additional information about each of the migratory birds in the story.
Evaluation
I am a huge fan of story books that also teach something. Look, See the Bird! introduces young children to the migratory birds that travel through North America from Nicaragua. I love that the story is simple enough for preschoolers to understand (birds in Central America fly to North America in the summer and back to Central America in the winter) but contains enough additional information (facts about specific birds) to keep older readers interested. I especially appreciate the “Birds in This Book” section at the end of the story, which provides a brief description of each bird included in the story.
The hand-drawn illustrations in Look, See the Bird! bring the story to life with a softness of style. The birds are colorful, and the scenes full of interesting details. Both my kiddos enjoy pouring over the pictures. My daughter likes finding the bird described on each page while my toddler son loves pointing out the “dird” on each spread of pages. Overall I am quite impressed with the work of creative nonfiction that is Look, See the Bird!
Final Verdict
If your kids enjoy learning about birds as much as mine do, I highly suggest picking up a copy of Look, See the Bird! written by Bill Wilson and Katie Fallon with illustrations by Leigh Anne Carter. The creative nonfiction book follows migratory birds in various locations in North America from as far south as Nicaragua in Central America to Canada in the north. The illustrations are soft and colorful and bring the text to life. The final pages of the book also include additional information about each of the migratory birds in the story. Look, See the Bird! is an excellent title for introducing bird migration to young readers.
Purchase Look, See the Bird! on Amazon via my affiliate link.
Image Credits
‘Look, See the Bird!’ Book Review © 2017 Heather Johnson
Front Cover of ‘Look, See the Bird!’ © 2017 Heather Johnson
Back Cover of ‘Look, See the Bird!’ © 2017 Heather Johnson
Inside Pages of ‘Look, See the Bird!’ 1 © 2017 Heather Johnson
Inside Pages of ‘Look, See the Bird!’ 2 © 2017 Heather Johnson
