SOME BIRDS

Simple rhymes in bold print cavort among kaleidoscopic images of birds.

“Some birds are BIG, / some birds are small,” begins a book with equally entertaining art, layout, and text. The bird whose size description rhymes with “small” is, of course, “incredibly tall,” its fanciful, partridgelike bulk balanced atop legs that stretch over two pages, requiring readers to hold the book vertically and read words sideways from the bird’s feet up. All the birds are fashioned from bold, dark lines, their bodies filled in with patterns and colors that evoke 1960s mod album covers. Not all are generic: it is obviously a bald eagle that “soars high” and a pair of penguins that “waddle.” Despite geometric beaks and big, cartoonish eyes, the birds look alive and seem to have personalities. Beginning readers will enjoy the Seussian ease of the rhymes, and younger children will soon have the short text memorized. The light tone makes it clear that “some birds eat worms until they go pop!” is not a fact but a joke that allows both a rhyme with “hop” and a sly illustration of scattered feathers without any visible bird. Toward the end, there is a stark contrast between a lone, caged bird—looking quite forlorn—and a flock of joyous, multicolored birds, illustrating the sole didactic couplet of the text.

Endearing and great fun to share.