Bird Bills Built For The Best

It is not uncommon for chickadees to venture closer to humans than other birds.  When cross-country skiing I've had one land on the end of my pole.  They've flown in and gathered among the pine boughs over my head when I'm putting fresh water in the bird bath.  Still, yesterday, when one flew and landed on the table placed against my front windows on my covered porch, I was surprised and overjoyed.  It was a gift.

Admiration for our feathered companions grows with every song they sing, every nest they build, and every flight they take, whether it is a short spurt from tree branch to tree branch or a soaring glide on windy air currents high above the ground.  The Beak Book (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, January 5, 2021) written and illustrated by Robin Page provides readers with fantastic facts, vivid images, and one more reason birds deserve our utmost respect.  The will to survive, adaptations, and their ingenuity in using this physical characteristic will astound you.

Bird beaks come in many different

colors, shapes, and sizes.

From the time they are born

birds use their beaks - - - sometimes

called bills- - -in many unusual

and amazing ways.

As the pages in this book are turned, we meet twenty-one birds and the twenty-two uses for their versatile bills.  The soft beak of a ruddy duck can shift through mud separating out a variety of items.  Did you know at the end of the beak of a Norton Island brown kiwi is its nostrils?  It is a master sniffer.

Beaks can change prey into a meal by tossing, crushing, stabbing, or ripping it.  The keel-billed toucan carries its air-conditioner with it.  Its long beak emits heat.  

The common tailorbird is an expert at sewing.  The female's beak stitches leaves together using spider webbing like thread.  A red crossbill is clever at extracting seeds from pinecones with its beak.  In warmer weather it is not unusual to watch birds with slender, long beaks sipping nectar from blossoms. At hummingbird feeders you can hear them chirping at each other as their wings blur, holding them in place.

You can almost hear a hyacinth macaw call out--- "Look mom, no hands!" as it moves up a branch utilizing its beak.  You'll want to move aside if male hornbills start fighting.  The beak on the oriental pied hornbill is indeed a weapon.  Noted for its color and imposing size, the pileated woodpecker makes large holes in trunks with its sharp, hard bill.  On the final pages the ruddy duck makes another appearance.  This time it emerges from an egg courtesy of a special tooth on its beak. 

The first sentence describing the beak is the same for each bird, supplying readers with an inviting cadence.  Robin Page expertly selects a verb for the end of that sentence.

This beak is for plucking.

Following the sentence are one or two sentences offering further explanation.

The flightless takahe

(tah-kah-hay) plucks 

leaves and grasses with its

short, stout beak.

Her invitation with the introductory sentence is almost like a question and we seek the answer willingly.

The crisp, white canvas seen on the front, right, and back, left, of the open and matching dust jacket and book case is found throughout the book.  It heightens the details and hues of the birds' faces and beaks.  The fierceness of the eagle on the front is evident in the tilt of its head, its curved beak, and its steely stare.  It is poised for action.  The bird and text are varnished.

On the back a small circle is placed on the white background.  Within the circle, the adult eagle is using its beak to feed a baby eagle, head lifted from the nest.  This is an additional use of this bird's beak from the sentence in the interior of the book.

The opening and closing endpapers are a golden yellow (bird's beak yellow).  On the title page a shoebill stork looks directly at the reader, its body placed between two pieces of text.  Rendered in

Adobe Photoshop

the illustrations created by Robin Page are beautifully lifelike.  Texture, color, and shading are superb.  The eyes are exquisite.  You can't help but feel these creatures will move off the page at any moment.

For each bird, an enlarged version of their head, upper body and beak are prominent on the page.  A smaller accompanying image shows them engaged in the noted activity.  A caption with this smaller picture tells us their name.  For four of the birds double-page pictures rather than single-page illustrations are devoted to them.  One bird has two double-page visuals.

One of my many favorite illustrations is of the common tailorbird.  The hues of rusty-red, grass green, grayish white and a splash of black of its feathers are splendid.  The spark of life in its eye adds to the authenticity.  One can easily see how the beak is used for sewing.  In the smaller picture, the female is shown stitching leaves together with spider webbing as she leans in from a branch.

Everyone, birder or casual reader, will be intrigued by the information and pictures in The Beak Book written and illustrated by Robin Page.  You'll find yourself captivated from beginning to end of this title.  At the conclusion there are two pages dedicated to showing the birds in comparative sizes to an adult human being.  Global maps show their main area of residence. What they eat is also noted.  There is a bibliography and further reading list on the final page with the publication information.  I highly recommend this book for your professional collections and your personal bookshelves.

To learn more about Robin Page and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At the publisher's website you can view the entire dust jacket and interior images. I suggest you take a few moments to look at the visuals for this book at the publisher's page.  You can see what a stunning title this is.  

Depart To Start

The largest one can weigh more than forty pounds.  It usually does not travel farther than from top to bottom.  This is why they are endemic to the Republic of Seychelles.  Dispersed in the air like dust, the smallest is believed to be 1/35,000,000th of an ounce in weight.  Millions of them are produced from a single source.  From the first a coco de mer tree will flourish.  From the second a special specie of orchid will bloom.

Seeds seem to house miracles when they transform into any one of the vast assortment of plants.  Seeds Move! (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, March 19, 2019) written and illustrated by Robin Page presents all the actions associated with the distribution of seeds.  Nature has supplied clever modes of transportation carefully considering a range of habitats.

A tiny seed can one day become a flower, a fruit, or even a giant tree.

For a seed to perform its task, it requires water, air and the right temperature.  For many of them light is also a necessity.  Unlike the giant seeds of the coco de mer tree, the majority must leave the plant which produces them.

Sixteen action verbs describe the movements of sixteen seeds.  Some are designed to attach themselves to a moving body of an animal.  Others burst forth from their pods through touch or timing.  The large coconut drifts on water until it successfully finds new land so a palm tree can grow.

Some seeds trick insects, through taste, into taking them underground so they can germinate.  Frequently animals will gather seeds to eat but store them by hiding them in the dirt.  They can forget where all of them are placed, leaving the seed to create a new plant.  Did you know the durian fruit is a delectable treat to orangutans?  The seeds, though, are not tasty; so the orangutan spits them out.

The pods are already forming on the milkweed plants.  Soon those seeds will act like parachutes spreading where the breezes take them.  With berries on wild bushes handy for wild animals, seeds are carried inside them until they are released in their feces.  Readers are encouraged to plant their own seeds; specifically following the growth of a watermelon seed.  What was the last seed you planted in your garden?


As you read through the methods used by seeds to move, you'll find yourself thinking of other explanatory verbs to represent their actions.  This is an excellent technique by author Robin Page.  Simple sentences of only three words make an initial statement.  These are followed by information about the seed and the plant from which it comes. This, too, invites readers to explore more about the plant and where it is found.  Here is a sentence and the following details.

A seed sinks.
A lotus seed drops from its
pod and sinks to the bottom
of a pond.  There it will nestle
into the mud and sprout. 


Digitally rendered, all the illustrations, beginning with the open and matching dust jacket and book case, are realistically detailed in layers reminiscent of collage. On the front of the jacket and case six of the sixteen movements are presented through an engaging design and layout with the natural colors more noticeable on the white background.  To the left, on the back, we are brought very close to a spiny mouse who gathers and scatters seeds.  This is an interior image, too.

The opening and closing endpapers are a rich spring green. A combination of two other images are pictured on the title page.  For the introductory paragraphs, the blue used for the text on the jacket, case and title page becomes the canvas, supplying a striking contrast to the floating milkweed seeds.

Subsequent images are either double-page pictures or full-page pictures.  Once a portion of one image carries to the opposite page.  For the most part, Robin Page brings readers close to the seeds, enlarging them as they move.  Ants are as big as an adult hand.  A featured dung beetle is barely shy of the larger specie (6.7 inches) and sixty-two times as big as the smallest one. (National Geographic Kids)  Sometimes two perspectives will be showcased in a single image.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  Along the top half of the image a sandy beach stretches left to right.  Above this is a row of palm trees and other island vegetation.  White clouds are feathered on the blue sky.  In the ocean on the left a coconut drifts close to readers.  We can see a small stem and leaves have sprouted.  On the right a sea turtle is at rest under the surface, smaller in contrast to the seed.


When you think of this book, Seeds Move! written and illustrated by Robin Page, you know as a read aloud younger audiences will be asking to have it read again.  This would make for a wonderful creative drama reading with motions attached to the verbs.  You could also have children brainstorm other verbs attached to the movement of seeds.  For further research have children look up the plants and their locations, perhaps placing pins on a map to designate their homes.  I would pair this title with A seed is the start (National Geographic, February 13, 2018) written by Melissa Stewart.    You will certainly want a copy of this title for your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Robin Page and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  At School Library Journal, The Classroom Bookshelf, there is a fabulous post featuring this book and multiple lessons and resources.  (It's author mentions motions and creative drama also.)

Up, Down And All Around-Animals On The Move

Walking past the glassed doors leading out to my deck and backyard Wednesday evening, I was greeted by an unexpected sight.  Lying as peaceful as milk cows in a grassy meadow were two large deer.  The closer of the two seemed to be in charge, eyes and ears alert.  The smaller deer was positioned in one of my raised gardens as if it was its own personal resting place.  I imagine all the plants there have been consumed for a snack.  The entire yard is surrounded by a chain link fence.  When they leap over it, they seem to float.

The beauty of how animals move within our communities and in their natural habitats is a constant source of amazement.  In their newest collaboration Steve Jenkins and Robin Page share seven forms of locomotion used by animals.  Flying Frogs And Walking Fish (Leaping Lemurs, Tumbling Toads, Jet-Propelled Jellyfish, and More Surprising Ways That Animals Move) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 3, 2016) is a study of travel.

Animals walk, leap, climb, and swim.  Some roll or turn flips.  Others fly or glide, and a few are even jet-propelled.  

If you could peer along the floor of the ocean you might see an octopus using only two of its eight legs, taking a stroll.  Six other fellow creatures use legs, wings, fins, and a tail to go from place to place.  If you want to add speed a leap would be handy.

You would be a super hero if you could go fifty times as high as your own body length.  That's what a jumping spider can do.  Seeing a Japanese red-crowned crane spring into the air and gently fall to the ground must be breathtaking.  To move through water a trunk becomes a snorkel.  We all know how painfully slow a three-toed sloth meanders but when in the water, it's a different story.

Wouldn't you like to see a canine climb or a bird with clawed wings seek safety in a tree?  All sorts of animals can glide with ease and fly freely.  Look out for that snake!  Look out for that ant?  Did a lizard just float by?

Gymnasts in the critter realm can somersault to freedom like the mantis shrimp, curl and roll like a hedgehog or bite its tail turning in a circle like the armadillo lizard.  Even faster than the leapers are those zipping along as if launched from a canon.  All of those noted reside in water.  They use it as a force like the nautilus pushing water from its shell.  In many places on all our continents these animals go up, down and all around.


Robin Page and Steve Jenkins have pieced together a fascinating narrative.  This team understands which particular facts will be the most interesting to readers.  Single sentences are used for each animal; a variety of descriptive verbs creating images of their movements.  Seven lengthier paragraphs give an overview at the beginning of each section.  You want to wander in the worlds their words create.  Here is a sample passage and a couple of their sentences.

Rivers, lakes, and oceans can be challenging environments for animals adapted to life on land or in the air.  But swimming, even awkwardly, helps many creatures cool off, find food, or escape danger.

A young baboon dives in and paddles around just for fun.
A sleek cormorant plunges deep into the sea as it pursues a school of fish.


Steven Jenkins unmistakable style of illustration, torn-and cut-paper collage is noticeable immediately on the matching dust jacket and book case.  The canvas of bright sky blue on both the front and the back, to the left each feature an animal in green, the flying frog and the red-lipped batfish.  The white and black text provides a stunning contrast.  On the back is an assortment of action verbs used within the body of the book. (These are great to read aloud.)  The opening and closing endpapers are a swirl of hues of red; patterns of looped-leaf-like shapes.  The two creatures on the jacket and case make an appearance again on the title page.

The realistic intricacies Jenkins achieves in his collages are astounding; the circular suction cups on the octopus, the hundreds of legs on the millipede, the fur on the ring-tailed lemur, the texture on the elephant's skin, the feathery lightness of the leaves on trees, and the armor on the pangolin.  For each animal with eyes he captures the spark of light seen in each of them.  Their body stances and the lines defining them are brimming with motion.  The introductory animal spans two pages and the remainder are grouped on the following two pages.

One of my favorite illustrations is of the hedgehog.  It's shaped into a circle with a multitude of spines, brown flecked with white and gray.  A small gray face looks at the reader, brown eyes curious and nose ready to work.


Flying Frogs And Walking Fish written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is a winning title sure to increase and satisfy curiosity simultaneously.  For the sections, walking, leaping, swimming, climbing, flying, rolling and jetting, thumbnails with more information about each animal is provided at the end.  A bibliography is included on the closing endpapers with the publication information.

This educator's guide with several of Steve Jenkins' titles includes this most recent title.  To follow the process used in making this particular title please follow the link attached to Steve Jenkins's name.


Please visit educator Alyson Beecher's blog, Kid Lit Frenzy, to read about the other titles selected by bloggers participating in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Insider Secrets

Last night the first big storm of the season left behind five inches of snow.  Looking up from shoveling my driveway as the sun was starting to set; I noticed two deer quietly walking down the sidewalk across the street, a doe and an eight-point buck.  We watched each other for several minutes as I moved in rows back and forth tossing snow.

In mere seconds on a turn around I was startled to see they had gone.  They had vanished without a sound.  Not for the first time I wondered about the ability to accomplish something marvelous demonstrated in the animal world.  In a title recently named to the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12:2016 (Books published in 2015) the wife and husband collaborative team of Robin Page and Steve Jenkins reveal fascinating instructions.  How To Swallow A Pig: Step-By-Step Advice From The Animal Kingdom (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 1, 2015) will increase your admiration and respect for these creatures.

So you want to learn how to swallow a pig.  You've come to the right place.  

If you want to ease into this particular bit of knowledge, it is suggested to start out slowly with the less dramatic tricks of the trade.  Seventeen unique techniques are disclosed before the final eighteenth feat.

Teamwork among blue whales, circular swimming and blowing of bubbles, makes for a tasty meal.  An aptly named tailorbird uses creative stitching skills to shape a nest.  You'll look at millipedes differently with the new awareness of their value in the insect-plentiful rainforest.  Although the capuchin monkeys approach might make you utter the word gross.

Bighorn sheep teach us how to woo, crows cleverly crack nuts and beavers engineer a new pond.  Diving into the depths we witness the masquerade of the octopus.  Legs, a beak and spread wings define the hunting prowess of the reddish egret.  Paper manufacturer, mathematical genius, and umbrella engineer might be words used to describe the nesting building skills of a paper wasp.

Do you know why a barn spider spins the same web twice?  Do you know how bowerbirds work like interior designers?  Do you know why velvet monkeys have more than one alarm call?  Do you know why leaf-cutter ants leave a chemical trail?

Camouflage like a member of the tree family if you want to snatch dinner from the water like a crocodile.  Never settle for only one line of defense if you want to survive like an armadillo.  If pit digging is your style follow the lead of an ant lion.

The western grebe could teach contestants on Dancing with the Stars a move or two.  You most definitely won't want to engage in a hugging competition with a python.  Nothing compares to learning from members of the animal community.


For each creature Robin Page and Steve Jenkins use the repetitive words

How to ...
like a ...

This is followed by a captivating descriptive paragraph inviting the readers, if they desire, to follow their numbered steps to accomplish the same results as the mentioned animal.  The matter-of-fact conversational suggestions will have you believing you might blow a bubble net, smash heads with a rival or enjoy a

fungus feast.

Here are some excerpts from the

How to
Spin a Web
Like a Spider

...Before you start, however, you'll need to find a protected place to build your web, and---this is the tricky part---you'll have to learn how to spin silk threads.

1 Cast a line.
Once you've found the right spot, cast a single silk thread into the air.  If you're lucky, the breeze will catch it and it will snag on a nearby branch or other object.
2 Make a loop.
Walk across the first thread and spin another that droops to form a U.


The python coiled around the title, author and illustrator text on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case is stunning.  The placement of the tail and head and using the patterned skin as a frame is a truly eye-catching design.  On the back, to the left, on a background of the same rusty red as found on the front are six white circles.  Each features a portion of a different illustration from the interior.  The title font hue covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page the image from the front jacket and case is repeated with a noticeable change.  All that remains of the python is an "s" portion of the tail.  The reptile is on the move.

White space showcases the torn-and-cut-paper collage art of Steve Jenkins.  The tiny details and the play of light and shadow creating life-like eyes are astounding.  The set of instructions may be placed on a single page or span two pages.  For each number a separate image is shown.

One of my favorite series of illustrations is for the tailorbird.  As the bird selects a leaf we see him on a branch coming from the top of a page.  Then it has moved to work the two edges of the leaf together with spider silk.  As the holes are poked in the leaf edges and found material is used to sew them together the angle of the pictures changes.  The final visual is larger as the tailorbird flies gathering soft items to line the nest.


It's understandable in addition to being on the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12:2016 (Books published in 2015), How To Swallow A Pig: Step-by-Step Advice From The Animal Kingdom written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is also one of the Commended Books on the 2016 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize Finalists list.  At the close of the book several pages highlight more facts about each of the animals.  There is also a short bibliography.

If you desire to learn more about Robin Page and Steve Jenkins please visit their website by following the link attached to the first name.  Attached to the second name are pages dedicated to the making of this book. Don't miss the book, reading it aloud or chatting about the information found at their website.

Please stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by Alyson Beecher to see the other titles selected by bloggers this week who are participating in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Contained Within

Seeing not one but seven robins gathered on the lawn last week was like discovering a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  Their voices joining the calls of chickadees, cardinals, crows and geese are uplifting.  It's easy to start imagining where they will set up housekeeping in the shrubs and trees around the house.

Perhaps a nest will be near enough to observe the pale blue eggs carefully laid, warmed and watched, the hatching, and the babies' first flight.  Numerous lives in the animal kingdom begin within an egg.  Egg:  Nature's Perfect Package (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 3, 2015), written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, examines aspects of eggs you may or may not have considered.

Butterflies, frogs, sharks, and humans all begin life as an egg.  So does almost every other animal.

This title focuses on those eggs laid.  It's fascinating to realize a banana slug and a sea urchin lay eggs.  The sizes of eggs vary from those so tiny a microscope is needed to see them to those the size of my two closed fists.  It's also surprising to realize the size of the animal does not determine the size of the egg.  Small animals can have eggs much larger than those of gigantic creatures.

Eggs can be carefully placed where no predators are safe or out in the open.  It's a tad creepy to know where the spider wasp lays a single egg.  There are less than stellar parents who deposit their eggs with other eggs to avoid duties of raising their young.

The number of eggs laid often determines the quality of care received.  The royal albatross lays a single egg.  It will be another two years before they lay another egg.  While I knew the green sea turtle buries their eggs in the sand, I had no idea the number of miles they may swim to find a particular beach.  

Creativity is key for those animals desiring eggs as food.  They may use a rock to crack a shell, throw one between their back legs in order to strike a hard object or make use of a long bill. Knowing this, animals take steps to protect their eggs.  A colored cluster may warn of poison, a dark ink may hide individual eggs or releasing a disgusting liquid may provide discouragement.

Least you think eggs are similar in shape, that is not always the case.  Creatures supply a structure resilient to the environment in which they are laid.  When camouflage or the container for eggs is not sufficient, the eggs are taken with the female or male until birth.  

The black-eyed squid clutches her jelly-like egg sac with sharp hooks on her tentacles.  The sac contains as many as 3,000 eggs, and she will hold on to it for months, going without food until the eggs hatch.  

It's incredible to realize how eggs are kept warm; the maelo buries her eggs, if she has to, in the ashes of a nearby volcano which is active. When babies break free of the eggs, it must be at the right time.  For the brine shrimp it can take up to fifty years.  It can be tricky when you think of how those shells were created to protect and furnish nourishment.  A corn snake has a special tooth to help it break free.  The speed of development, the packaging, size and protection maintained may differ from animal to animal but each egg is a natural marvel, as distinctive as the animal from which it comes. 

When Steve Jenkins and Robin Page combine their talents to write a narrative, we are assured of authenticity through painstaking research.  These two search for the most captivating items of information to present in simple conversational sentences to their audience.  A nice selection of insects, sea and pond creatures, reptiles, birds and land as well as extinct animals are represented to capture the interest of every reader.

Every two pages a new section begins with a short paragraph.  Extra explanatory sentences serve to clarify.  When a specific animal is featured their name is placed in bold type drawing your eyes to their entry.

You can guaranteed readers, even those new to the artwork of Steve Jenkins, will be attracted by the bold background hues on the matching front and back of the dust jacket and book case.  These selected colors serve as the ideal canvas to showcase his slightly cracked egg with a beak poking through the shell.  On the back a long-billed baby bird is emerging.  A bright golden yellow (yolk) covers both the opening and closing endpapers.  The egg seen on the front appears again beneath the title, open, in two pieces and empty.  

Other than the introduction whose text is in the shape of an egg (white on red-orange) and the opposite page in golden yellow with egg types in a row at the bottom, all the remaining pages are pristine white.  Using his masterful technique of

torn-and cut-paper collage

the highlighted eggs and corresponding animals are portrayed in almost photographic detail.  Jenkins' paper choices replicate texture and physical characteristics faithfully.  Layout and design establishes a pleasing flow from page to page.  We may see all or only a portion of an animal.

A couple of my favorite illustrations are of the black-spotted sticky frog and the gray partridge.  The former is shown peeking out of an orange carnivorous pitcher plant.  The tiny baby bird in the second sits among three other eggs in a nest.  The feathers look as soft as down.

From the title, Egg:  Nature's Perfect Package, and including every single page between the cover, authors Steve Jenkins and Robin Page and illustrator Steve Jenkins have given readers of all ages an absorbing look at the subject.  The quality we have come to expect in their words and illustrations is decidedly present in this book.  They continue to inspire us to increase our appreciation of the natural world.  You must be sure to find a place for this on your bookshelves.  It will captivate you every single time you read it.  At the close of the book a comparison of the growth cycle of a chicken and an alligator inside the egg is displayed.  Following this three pages show tiny thumbnails of the animals, their length and habitat.

At Steve Jenkins' website, which you can access by following the link attached to his name, the process used to create this book is outlined in a series of slides.  Three interior double page spreads are available for you to view.  By following this link you are taken to a document prepared by the publisher which includes teacher's guides for five Jenkins' books including this new volume.

Be sure to visit educator Alyson Beecher's blog, Kid Lit Frenzy, to see what other titles were featured by participating bloggers this week in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Facing The Facts

There are some animals I would not mind seeing face to face if my safety is assured.  There are other animals I would never want to see face to face even if my well-being is absolutely guaranteed.  For the most part I am grateful to be able to roam among their habitats keeping myself from infringing on their space; happy for their unexpected nearness unless they are one of those critters I would rather avoid.

Truthfully, considering the changing conditions on our planet, I stand in awe of the adaptability of animals as they strive to survive.  A husband and wife team from whom we have come to expect the very best have a new title.  Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 7, 2014) by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page clarifies what we can expect to see when we look certain animals right in their eyes.

Dear tapir:
Why is your nose crooked?
The tapir has a funny nose.  At least, it looks funny to us.  To the tapir, however, its nose is not a joke.

With this first page the illuminating format used by this author illustrator team is revealed.  Each animal is given a question by the narrator.  They, in turn, provide a short, but descriptive answer.

From South America, home of the tapir, we travel across the ocean to locate an Egyptian vulture whose face is absent of feathers, to discover why a bold red and blue color the countenance of a mandrill, and visit a frilled lizard to discuss the odd arrangement around his neck.  We journey back to where we started to ask the red fan parrot why they may or may not be wearing a hat. While we are there we are astonished to note feathers on a harpy eagle direct sound to their ears.

The nose of a leaf-nosed bat, the mouth of a horned frog, the cheeks of a hamster and the body of a pufferfish are closely examined.  Oddly enough the horns on the bighorn sheep come in handy rather than being a detriment to movement.  Did you even know there is a type of pig called a babirusa living in the Indonesian Islands?

Below ground the star-nosed mole and mole rate us exterior physical characteristics to navigate, find food and dig.  Whiskers and gills not feathers allow two animals to function properly under the sea.  The wily spicebush swallowtail caterpillar sports spots on their tails to trick predators into thinking they are snakes.

Black-eyes, furry ears, and purple tongues help to discourage enemies, provide warmth and give protection from the sun.  The blobfish is a victim of gravity out of the water.  Ending up on the Pacific side of the globe we learn of the importance of a sun bear's long (more than nine inches on some) tongue, the cleverness of the shoebill stork's beak, the advantage of the thorny devil's spikes and the two main assets of the rock hyrax.

The comedic wordplay used by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins takes learning about these twenty-five creatures to the best level.  If your interest is held when you acquire new knowledge because you are laughing and it's fun, why wouldn't you remember the actual facts or the experience?  Page and Jenkins form their sentences with a specific audience in mind; an audience eager to explore the fascinating world of animals.  Read a couple of excerpts shown below.

Dear Egyptian vulture:
Why no feathers
on your face?
Are you sure you
want to know?
Really? Okay, I'll
tell you. ...

Dear leaf-nosed
bat:
Seriously, is that 
your nose?
I know, I know---it
looks strange. ...


This will be the eighth book illustrated by Steve Jenkins honored in a post on my blog.  His torn-paper and cut-paper collage pictures never fail to amaze his readers.  Authentic colors and characteristics are highlighted with vivid, bold backgrounds.  On his matching dust jacket and book case the red used in the text for the title becomes the canvas for the image on the left or back.  A pufferfish is speaking to the reader in reply to a question shown in speech balloons.

Dear
pufferfish:
What's happening
to you?

I'm inflating! It's
just something I do.
I don't have time to
explain right now, but
read the book and I'll
tell you more.

Hues of gold, green, black, red, orange, blue, and salmon supply the backdrop for these animal portraits appearing on single pages throughout the title.  Only two, the horned frog and the blobfish, extend across two pages.  Texture and the smallest of details are portrayed through the choice of paper and intricate handiwork.  Research through reliable resources assists in the accuracy of the images.  They appear as if alive.

One of my favorites of the twenty-five has to be the red squirrel.  The quickness of movement is frozen in this illustration.  You can almost hear the squirrel chattering at you for interrupting what must surely be a day spent in storing food for the upcoming winter.


Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have delivered a stellar work of nonfiction in Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do.  We feel like listeners of a chatty, informative, humorous talk show.  The final two pages give diet and location of each animal depicted by their silhouettes.  A bibliography is included.  I have a feeling you are going to need more than one copy of this title for your shelves.

By following the link attached to Steve Jenkins name you will be taken to his official website.  This link takes you to an explanation of how the book evolved.  The publisher has produced a series of masks to wear taken from five of the pages.

Creature Features Mask Kit

Be sure to head on over to Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see what other bloggers have highlighted today as part of the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

A Different Point Of View

There are authors' and illustrators' books, no matter the topic, when read you know you will learn something new.  There may be one fact on a subject, a subject in which you thought you were well versed, which will make you gasp in surprise.  From that moment on, you will become the proverbial sponge, going backward and forward, reading the text and pictures.


Last year I highlighted several books illustrated and written by Steve Jenkins, one in collaboration with his wife Robin Page.  My First Day by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, January 2013) chronicles twenty-two newborn animals.  The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest---and Most Surprising---Animals on Earth (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, October 2013) by Steve Jenkins is a masterful work on all things animals.  Little did I know that in-between those two another stunning publication, Animals Upside Down (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, August 2013) was released.

What do spiders, bats, and birds of paradise have in common?  Along with many other creatures, they turn upside down.  A few of them, in fact, spend most of their lives this way.

Twenty-six known or unknown creatures, depending on where you live, are the object of this interactive introduction.  Readers pull tabs moving animals and sliding windows, open flaps, turn pages to reveal pop-ups and spin circles; each one an intriguing  revelation.  On land or water, readers travel the globe to explore and wonder at the amazing adaptability of each living thing.

While I am more than familiar with the abilities of a striped skunk, I was unaware of the darkling beetle's capabilities to duplicate a similar response in defense.  A fire-bellied toad is aptly named changing colors to ward off predators; the poisonous skin is a pretty good deterrent too.  Playing dead works well for a hog-nosed snake, a pale green weevil and opossum.  One even takes it to the extreme, passing out cold in fright.

Being able to move in the opposite direction, while looking at different angles than most, comes in handy for the nuthatch.  Lots of tail action on the part of a harvest mouse, an armored pangolin, a monkey skink and a woolly monkey aid in movement and feasting on food.  You have to appreciate the cleverness of the net-catching spider lowering the woven trap on its next meal while hanging above it.  As many times as I've watched hummingbirds, I've yet to see one upside down to get nectar.

When you've grown up boating on the water for pleasure or fishing, it's not uncommon to see mallards or other ducks, tipping their bodies to put their heads in the water for food.  But what the sparrowhawk does in flight to capture an unsuspecting bird is not something I have ever seen.  There's more than eye-catching pink to the traits of a flamingo.  Their beaks are nature's own strainers.

Turning around to leave a specially built home, hanging from a branch like a dead leaf, and being the only bird to sleep upside down assist each of these three in staying alive.  All of these creatures either originally or evolved to exist "outside the box".  Their point of view makes all the difference.


For the most part two sentences, sometimes three or four, define the unique characteristics of these animals.  They are clearly understandable, written with a choice of words to convey place and purpose, matching beautifully with the illustrations.  The name of the animal is displayed in bold text to focus the reader's attention.  At the back of the book two pages are devoted to thumbnail pictures of the animals with short paragraphs providing further information usually including size and geographical location.  (Who knew skunk spray could go not one, not two but twelve feet?)

Here is a sample of text.

A hungry trumpetfish lurks, head down.  Disguised as a piece of soft coral, this stealthy fish waits for its prey to come close.  


The contrasting blue, brown, gold and red on the book's cover with the bat looking straight ahead on the front and the spider about to catch an unsuspecting fly on the back, is a direct invitation to the reader.  The endpapers are a part of the book, every bit of space is an element.  A warm bright white supplies the background for Steve Jenkins' lively cut and torn paper collage illustrations which pop off the page even without the paper engineering.

Alternating the action taken by readers, pulling a tab to bring a change into a pre-cut gap, opening a flap, pulling a tab to slide sections into creating a new image, pulling a tab to make an animal's body move, opening pages to reveal a pop-up or spinning a circle to make an creature shift position, contributes to the constant interest, the solving of a marvelous mystery.  Purposeful placement of the animals on the pages serves to add to the overall excellent design.  Text is located next to or around each creature.

One of my favorite illustrations is of the weaverbird's nest formed of woven grass and palm fronds hanging down from the top of the page.  The bird, in bright shades of golden yellow, peeks from the narrow bottom.  When the tab is pulled most of his body comes out, upside down.


Reading this book is like going on a treasure hunt; each page turn adding to the bounty we call knowledge.  No matter your age Animals Upside Down (A Pull, Pop, Lift & Learn Book!) written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is a fascinating look at these twenty-six individual living beings.  Its colorful pictures, enlightening text and sturdy construction on heavy paper make for a lasting book to be enjoyed repeatedly.

The link embedded above in the title is to Steve Jenkins' website.  It gives you a look at four of the pages, dissolving into the changes.  Enjoy the trailer.  


I am excited to be participating in Alyson Beecher's 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted on her blog, Kid Lit Frenzy, each Wednesday.  I love filling in my nonfiction book gap with many great titles, new and old.

For The Very First Time...

People, no matter their age, feel an attraction to, sometimes even the need to protect, baby animals. (Maybe not mosquitoes but you know what I mean.)  It's a frequent sight in my community surrounded by lakes for traffic to stop for a line of new "quackers" trailing behind mama, reminiscent of Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings. In the morning or early evening it's not uncommon, looking out the back windows of the library at the elementary school, to see deer including fawns in the spring.  If this happens during classes, twenty plus faces, noses pressed against the glass, will be oohing and aahing.

I was moved to tears when present at the birth of puppies; a marvelous miracle to watch.  For those without access to these events Steve Jenkins and his wife, Robin Page have collaborated in a new book, My First Day (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children).  Within thirty-two pages readers are introduced to twenty-two newborns.


What did you do on your first day---the day you were born?

As the introduction reveals, animals may be completely helpless, in need of some assistance or on their own as soon as they are born.  We start in New Zealand with the the kiwi, who after breaking forth from an egg, is ready for the world.  Traveling to the Russian Far East, we discover Siberian tigers are born with their eyes closed, dependent on their mothers.  With a habitat ranging over North America wood ducks climb out of the nest, jump from unbelievable heights to walk and swim right away.

From Africa to Antarctica to the North Pacific to oceans throughout the world, on to South America, then to Australia, and stopping over in the Arctic regions, we visit to find the first day facts of the known and not-so-well known animals on our planet. Readers are probably familiar with giraffes, emperor penguins, sea otters, zebras and polar bears.  How many have heard of a blue wildebeest, a sifaka, a Mexican free-tailed bat, a megapode or Darwin's frog?

You can't help but be intrigued by knowing a mother zebra memorizes the stripes on her baby to find them in a herd of thousands or by the baby megapode born in a huge pile of leaves who can walk, run and fly once they find their way out.  It's interesting to note other stand-out features of the animals selected for this title; the kiwi lays one, and only one, huge egg, the Siberian tiger is the largest living big cat in the world, sea otters are the smallest marine mammal in the world, and the leatherback sea turtle is the biggest on our planet.  These facts are not all mentioned in this title but when nonfiction is well presented, as this is, it invites further investigation.


Jenkins and Page devote one or two sentences to each animal beginning nearly all of them with

On my first day, ...

The intended audience will feel a kinship with each creature as they speak in their own voice.  The array of first day experiences are as different or similar as the animals themselves.


Winning a Caldecott Honor Award in 2004 for What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? brought further attention to the notable torn and cut-paper collage used by Jenkins for his illustrations.  On the jacket and cover, mirror images of one another, readers see a baby muntjac nestled among leaves hoping to remain undetected.  The back asks the question, What did you do on your first day?, words above and beneath an adult and baby Darwin's frog (green on rusty red). Plain sky blue endpapers open and close the body of the book.

Each animal is given a different colored background, setting, highlighting their physical characteristics.  The details, eyelashes, reflections in the eyes, feathers, fur, shading on the bodies or surroundings, is astounding in its intricacy and accuracy.  As in other titles the text placement within the pictures is like concrete poetry imitating the actions depicted by the words.


As an introduction to animals in our world, My First Day written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is highly informative and engaging in the best possible way, stunning visuals and the kind of facts children (of all ages) will want to know.  As a one-on-one or as a class read aloud I can think of no better new title in this subject area.  More facts, small paragraphs with thumbnail illustrations, about each of the animals are included at the end.

For further study of the animal kingdom head over to ARKive reviewed here on the blog or the kids section of the National Geographic web site.

For additional information on the work of Steve Jenkins there are several videos and slideshows at Teaching Books.net.  Here is an earlier interview of Jenkins at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  This is a link to Steve Jenkins Science Is Fun! A cross-curricular guide to books by Steve Jenkins developed by the publisher.