Wholly absorbing—a sure-fire way to turn even a casual birder into a woodpecker fanatic.
Bannick details 41 different species of woodpeckers across 11 genera in this nonfiction work.
The author became enthralled with woodpeckers at the tender age of 8 or 9 after spying one through his kitchen window; it’s a good bet that readers will grow equally enamored with the intriguing little creatures as well. That’s due to both Bannick’s encyclopedic knowledge of the birds and the often-lyrical prose he uses to describe them. “As the first golden rays of light splintered through bundles of needles on giant red-armored ponderosa pines in Washington’s Cascade Range, I began to hear a cacophonous mixture of shrieks, mewing, churrs, rattles, warbles, cackles, and chipping blended with loud, rhythmic drumming of various cadences and amplitudes,” he writes. The effect of such language is infectious and enough to send one off on a scouting expedition to see what might be uncovered in one’s own backyard. Woodpeckers can be found performing their indispensable handiwork from the Caribbean all the way to the Arctic; the author sets his sights on those living in North America over the course of a year. He calls them “tree doctor[s],” explaining that the birds are beneficial to humans as they control pests and shield trees from destructive budworms and the like. Woodpeckers also create and improve habitats by making sap available to migrating animals, dispersing seeds, and cultivating the soil with the wood chips they produce by hammering their impressive bills into hard tree bark. How do they do this and avoid causing severe harm to themselves? Bannick has the detailed answer to that question, as well as a treasure-trove of many others. The text is fascinating and a delight to read, supplemented by a generous amount of stunning close-up full-color photography by the author. Sadly, some of these marvelous birds are in trouble due to a variety of factors ranging from excessive timber harvesting to climate change—the author hopes that a greater appreciation for woodpeckers and an increased awareness about the perils they face will spur humans to come to their aid.
Wholly absorbing—a sure-fire way to turn even a casual birder into a woodpecker fanatic.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781680513165
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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