Birdsongs

My daughter really enjoyed this book. The illustrations are beautifully rendered in rich colors and textures, and my daughter was captivated. She also liked listening to me reproduce the songs described on each page, from the quacking of the ducks to the screeching of the gulls. As to the comments about correctly identifying the birds, my impression was that terms like "red-capped," "chipping," and "white-cheeked," were merely adjectives that the author used to describe the appearance or behavior of the birds in question, not actual common names of each species. (Similar to describing my daughter as a wiggly, red-headed cutie-pie--it's not her official name, but it IS an accurate description.) I can't say what the author's intent was, but that was how I read the text. My undergraduate degree was in ecology, and I spent a fair amount of time doing field work. I found the illustrations in this book to be quite faithful to reality, with strong visual appeal for young readers. In terms of its overall accuracy, while I wouldn't use this book to train an ornithologist, I think it does a great job of teaching children about the natural world, with the added bonus of a counting lesson. Despite all of my reasons for liking this book, in the end, my daughter's enthusiasm and enjoyment of it speak for themselves.

Franco and Jenkin's Birdsongs is one of those picture books you can return to again and again and find something new each time. It could be especially rich for use in an early childhood classroom where the graphics and text offer a wonderful exploration of patterns--there are the patterns and sounds of the differnt birds shown on each page, the pattern of the day from dawn to nightfall, and the counting down number pattern shown by the number of birds, and repetitions of that species unique call and

Betsy Franco and Steve Jenkins' BIRDSONGS celebrates neighborhood birds, reading like fiction but incorporating plenty of facts about different kinds of birds and their habits. From a tree of chickadees to the caw of the crow, kids are invited to learn the sounds of nature, and to understand bird habits.