birds

Twitch by M.G. Leonard

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I’ve been a fan of M.G. Leonard from her very first book, Beetle Boy. I love all of her books, especially her most recent series, Adventures on Trains, written with Sam Sedgman. I was super excited to hear she had another new solo book coming this year, all about birdwatching and solving mysteries. Twitch is out now and it is absolutely wonderful!

Twitch is a kid who loves birdwatching. It’s nearly the summer holidays and he plans to spend it watching birds at Aves Wood, in the bird hide that he has painstakingly constructed. His plans are interrupted though when the police start hunting for an escaped convict from the local prison. The police are combing every inch of Aves Wood, scaring the birds away. All of his hours spent birdwatching have honed Twitch’s observation skills, and he notices some strange behaviour from visitors to Aves Wood. There are two girls who seem to be sneaking around and a man called Billy, who is camping out in the woods. Billy is friendly to Twitch and wants to know more about Aves Wood and its bird life. Robber Ryan has been seen in the area and Twitch is hoping that Ryan doesn’t find his bird hide. As Twitch tries to uncover the truth about what is happening at Aves Wood, he unwittingly puts others in danger. It’s up to Twitch and his friends to catch the criminal and right a wrong.

Twitch is an action-packed mystery that zips along at the speed of a kingfisher. I flew through the story, because I needed to find out how it ended. It’s a story that has something for everyone, from twists that swoop out of nowhere and clever characters, to tricky plans and birds galore. It’s also a story where you don’t know who to trust. Twitch will make you want to get outside and enjoy nature, because M.G. Leonard shows you that there is so much to explore and observe. Paddy Donnelly’s stunning cover makes you want to dive into Twitch’s story and meet all of its avian characters.

Like her Adventures on Trains series, M.G. Leonard weaves a perfect mystery, that keeps you guessing, and has the most satisfying ending. She makes you feel connected to the characters and concerned when they find themselves in trouble. I love the way that she sets up the characters, so that you’re never really sure about their intentions. Twitch’s bully/friend Jack is one of those characters who is tricky to figure out. At the start of the book he is trying to force Twitch to eat a worm but then becomes his friend. You’re never really sure whether he’s actually Twitch’s friend or not though. Twitch is a cool character and I’m sure he will inspire young readers to become birdwatchers themselves. He has made me want to take more notice of the birds around me.

I absolutely love Twitch and I hope we get to join him and his friends on more adventures. Twitch would be a wonderful read aloud for Years 5-8 as it will have everyone on the edge of their seats.

Walker Books and M.G. Leonard have created some wonderful videos to go with Twitch. Check them out below:

Takahē Trouble! by Sally Sutton and Jenny Cooper

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The real-life antics of animals often inspire fictional stories. The escape of a pair of takahē from a predator-free sanctuary in Auckland inspired Sally Sutton and Jenny Cooper to create a picture book about their adventures, called Takahē Trouble. No-one really knows what the takahē got up to in the ten days that they were missing, but Sally and Jenny have woven a hugely entertaining and beautifully illustrated story about what might have happened.

Walter and Manaaki are teenage takahē who are the best of friends. They live behind a fence and life is pretty boring. Manaaki dreams of adventure. She wants to see a rat and a car, and she wants to nibble foreign food. Walter just wants to stay at home, with the smell of salt and the sweet-eating grass. The two friends escape and have the adventure that Manaaki dreamt of. However, now that they’ve experienced some of those things, Manaaki has changed her mind, and it’s Walter that loves the adventure. They decide to let themselves be caught and go back home…until next time.

Takahē Trouble is a funny tale of two friends toddling off on an adventure. The combination of Sally Sutton’s rich language and dialogue and Jenny Cooper’s delightful illustrations that are bursting with personality, make Takahē Trouble a perfect picture book. This is a picture book that children will be asking you to read again and again (I’ve read it half a dozen times already because my daughter keeps asking for it). Sally uses her signature onomatopoeia style throughout the book (my favourite is ‘munch-crunch-scrunch’) and lots of repetition, which makes the story a whole lot of fun to read aloud.

The thing I love the most about this book is the personalities that Sally gives Walter and Manaaki and the way that Jenny highlights their personalities in her illustrations. Manaaki has a very distinctive voice and I found my voice instinctively taking on her personality as I read the story. I especially love Jenny’s illustration of Manaaki standing at the fence, ready to break out. She has perfectly captured Manaaki’s mischievousness. At the start of the story Manaaki is really confident and is desperate for adventure, while Walter would rather stay home than seek adventure. However, as the story progresses, and they experience life outside the fence, their perspectives change. I also really like how Jenny has given Walter and Manaaki different hairstyles, which looks natural, but means that you can tell them apart easily.

The bonus section at the back of the book, The Truth About Takahē, taught me some things that I didn’t know about takahē, and it is sure to inspire young readers to want to find out more.

Grab a copy of Takahē Trouble and go on an adventure with Walter and Manaaki.

Birds of New Zealand, Ngā Manu o Aotearoa: Collective Nouns by Melissa Boardman

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I have a new found appreciation and interest in birds thanks to a board game that I’m currently obsessed with, called Wingspan. Up until recently I wouldn’t have considered myself a board game person but Wingspan has sparked my enthusiasm for both board games and birds. In the game you collect birds, eggs and food and play them on your board. The base game is made up of North American birds, and you can get expansions for birds of Europe and Oceania. Discovering the birds in the game has led me to want to know more about them, especially our New Zealand birds. In my search I came across a beautiful book that has recently been released about New Zealand birds called Birds of New Zealand: Collective Nouns by Melissa Boardman.

Birds of New Zealand: Collective Nouns is bursting with Melissa’s stunning illustrations of New Zealand birds, alongside a collective noun for the group of birds. Inside this book you’ll discover a rattle of sacred kingfishers, a ringing of bellbirds, a raft of little blue penguins, a hive of stitchbirds, and a booming of kākāpō. Each collective noun has also been translated in to te reo Māori. The collective nouns used in the book are a mixture of existing nouns, nouns adapted from similar overseas birds, and ones made up for the book. Each collective noun perfectly captures each bird’s characteristics, whether it is related to their appearance, the sounds they make or their colour. At the back of the book Melissa gives you a snippet of information about each of the birds included in the book, separating them into categories depending on how threatened or vulnerable they are.

I am smitten with this book and keep going back to look at it again and again. It’s the perfect book to leave out on a coffee table or open on a bookshelf and change the pages every now and again to show different birds. It would be a great book to have in a classroom or school library for kids to look through and discover new birds and collective nouns for them. Melissa’s art is stunning and I would love to have prints of them all over my house.

If you are a bird fan you must pick up a copy of Birds of New Zealand: Collective Nouns.

Hooray for Birds by Lucy Cousins

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Children have been growing up with Lucy Cousins’ illustrations for many years now.  Her bold illustrations are very distinctive and you certainly can’t miss them.  Children have gone on adventures with Maisy, been captivated by her fairy tale retellings, and discovered all sorts of beautiful fish.  In Lucy’s latest book, Hooray for Birds, children will fall in love with birds.

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Children will find themselves becoming birds of all kinds as they wake up shouting “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” like a rooster, pecking like a woodpecker, and standing tall on just one leg like a flamingo.   They will hop, swim and swoop their way through the book until, worn out from all the excitement, they cuddle up close with Mama in their nest.

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Hooray for Birds is a bright, busy, noisy book that will make children flap their wings with delight.  It’s a delightful picture book that adults will be only too happy to read again and again.  Lucy encourages children to join in with the birds and flap, sing and waddle along with these colourful creatures.  I love Lucy’s illustration style and it really appeals to young children especially.  One of my favourite aspects of Hooray for Birds are the gorgeous endpapers which are covered with birds.

I think this would be a great book for teachers to incorporate in to the classroom as I can see lots of ways to extend the story across the curriculum.  Lucy uses lots of wonderful descriptive language for the different actions of the birds, so this could be worked in to the English curriculum.  The book could be part of a drama lesson where the children are acting as the different birds.  Children could create colourful birds of their own as part of an art lesson.  There are so many opportunities to extend the fun of this book.

Hooray for Birds is a delight to share and I’m sure it will be a favourite with the younger children in your life.

 

Picture Book Nook: One Little Fantail by Anne Hunter, illustrated by Dave Gunson

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There are some wonderful books that have been published about New Zealand birds, especially Ben Brown and Helen Taylor’s picture books.  There are very few, however, that are perfect for younger children and wonderful to read aloud.  One Little Fantail by Anne Hunter and illustrated by Dave Gunson is one of those books that entertains and informs young children about New Zealand birds.

One Little Fantail is a collection of delightful rhymes that introduce children to a variety of our native birds.  Anne Hunter’s rhyming text is a joy to read aloud and each poem rolls off your tongue.  I love the way that Anne can describe so much about each bird’s characteristics in just eight lines. The short, rhyming text makes the book perfect for sharing with younger children, as they don’t get bogged down in detail. You could get children to pretend to be each bird, based on the description that Anne gives you of each one.  For those inquisitive children, there are more interesting facts about each bird in the ‘Did you know…’ pages at the back of the book.

Each double page spread features a different bird, with their name in English and Maori.  Dave Gunson’s realistic illustrations are stunning and he perfectly captures the characteristics of each bird.  He captures the mischief of the Kea, the flitting of the Fantail, and the fierceness of the Kahu.

Book Design have done a brilliant job of designing One Little Fantail.  I especially like the way that the names of the birds fade into the background, while also being quite prominent on the page, and the way that the sounds each bird makes stands out in bold lettering.

One Little Fantail is a book should be in every preschool and school around the country.  Grab a copy and introduce your children to our magnificent native birds.

Kiwi: the real story by Annemarie Florian, illustrated by Heather Hunt

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New Holland Publishers are one of the leading publishers of children’s non-fiction in New Zealand and their books are often nominated for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  Their latest gem is the wonderful Kiwi: the real story by Annemarie Florian and illustrated/designed by Heather Hunt.

Kiwi: the real story is a marvelous multi-layered book thattells the story of Kiwi behaviour.  Weaving its way through the pages is a poem about the Kiwi, full of beautiful descriptive language, like ‘gorging grubber’ and ‘cricket-cruncher.’ I love alliteration and this poem is chock-full of it, making it a joy to read aloud.  Tying in wonderfully with the poem are the blocks of more detailed information on each page, which explain why the Kiwi is a ‘spider-wrestler’ and a ‘covert nestler.’  The design of the book means that you can read the poem and the information separately, or both together.  Younger children will love the poem and the illustrations, whereas older children will also enjoy finding out more about the Kiwi.

Heather Hunt’s illustrations are stunning.  I find it amazing how she can make a bunch of squiggly lines look exactly like a Kiwi.  I love the way that she shows the movement of the Kiwi on the page and the way that she brings out the character of this marvelous bird.  The colours that Heather has used, from the bright green of the praying mantis to the blue of the egg, are vibrant against the black background, and the grey and white of the Kiwi makes it really stand out on the page.  I especially like the way that she has used different colours to differentiate between the adult Kiwi and the baby Kiwi.  Heather also designed the book and I think that it’s this design that really makes the book special.  She has taken the three layers of the story and woven them together so that they can be enjoyed in unison.  The words of the poem seem to dance around the illustrations, making the book extremely appealing to young children.  The book is beautifully produced too, in a hardback format, with endpapers that look like the night sky.

The character of the Kiwi in the story was originally created by Heather to be the ambassador for Backyard Kiwi, a project carried out by the Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum.  The quirky design is used to personify the bird for road signs and billboards.  You can learn more about Backyard Kiwi at www.backyardkiwi.org.nz  and you can find out more about Heather and her working process at heatherhunt.co.nz/KIWI-the-real-story.

Kiwi: the real story is a must for any primary school library and is sure to be a finalist in next year’s New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  Grab a copy offrom your local library or bookshop now, or if you would like a special signed copy you can order these from Heather Hunt’s website – www.heatherhunt.co.nz/shop

4 out of 5 stars