A Bird Is a Bird by Lizzy Rockwell (review)

In this science picture book for the preschool set, Rockwell guides children through the characteristics that distinguish birds from other animals. First, there’s a beak, adapted for picking fruit, catching fish, pecking insects out of trees, or gathering nectar. Of course, there are wings, useful not only for flying and gliding, but also for swimming. And, as many listeners will anticipate, birds begin life in eggs, some in a tree, and some on the ground. However, as Rockwell pauses to point out, a platypus has a beak, a fly has wings, and snakes hatch from eggs. So what gives birds exclusive bragging rights? “Only a bird has …feathers!” This baby step in observation and classification is well suited to early childhood educational settings, with colored pencil and watercolor images of birds that look cheerily content but not anthropomorphized. Most pages feature a single observation (e.g., “Feathers can stand out”; “Feathers can blend in”), which facilitates pauses for comments, discussion, and prediction. Birds are shown in their habitats and are tidily, unobtrusively labeled. Limited text in oversized sans serif font may even encourage emergent readers to attempt a solo flight.