LALEH AND THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIRDS

A threatened bird sanctuary requires a magical solution.

Thirteen-year-old Laleh Lateef lives in Forest Creek Bird Sanctuary with her Iranian ornithologist father, Arjan. Aleida Truth, her white-presenting mother, died in childbirth, leaving Laleh nothing more than photos, a birdsong clock, and a few books, including a volume of tales by the Persian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar. After Baba fails to return one night, her maternal aunt and uncle, Paloma and Dolton, come to take her away, but Laleh doesn’t believe Dolton’s explanation that her father abandoned her and returned to Iran. When two crows named Silver and Gold speak to her, she discovers a long-held family secret that sends her on a quest to rescue Baba. It turns out he was investigating a strange illness spreading through bird populations that resembles DDT poisoning. Ivy, Laleh’s cousin, also learns the family secret and insists on helping. The girls work together using Attar’s story “The Language of the Birds” as their guide. Laleh’s fact-based approach contrasts with Ivy’s vivid imagination. Similarly, the book incorporates scientific facts about birds and human-made threats while the cousins navigate a series of fantastical bird kingdoms and face bizarre and unusual tasks. Sometimes, scientific and ecological explanations shape their decision-making; other times, they rely on magical explanations. Meanwhile, Silver the wisecracking crow peppers the narrative with adorable puns, alliteration, and dad jokes, adding humor to this engaging narrative.

A well-balanced story that delivers on promises of facts, fantasy, and fun.