Snow Birds by Kirsten Hall (review)

With all the emphasis that picture books place on birds that migrate to warm climes in autumn, and birds that chirp a welcome to spring, kids might not give much thought to birds that stick around through the long, cold winter. In this lusciously illustrated offering, Hall and Desmond introduce seventeen birds (the blue jay gets two entries—at the last chilly days of autumn and the first warm ones in spring) within spreads that feature compact poems and delicate mixed media paintings. Rhymed verses vary in poetic form, from the staccato couplets of “Black Rosy-Finch” (“Peep! Cheep! Peep! Cheep!/ WE WANT MORE!/ Till back they bounce/ through the barn house door”) to a swooping shaped poem, “Bohemian Waxwing” (“First there/ were two,/ then a few,/ then four, / then more”). Desmond is equally at home in brightest day, as the Northern cardinal and his mate perch on a flowering branch awaiting the season’s turn, and in deepest night, as five nearly camouflaged golden-crowned kinglets huddle close, dimly lit by snowflakes and their tree’s bright bark. Endnotes comprise thumbnail paintings of each bird and a paragraph of information on its behavior and habitat. Gentle enough for bedtime wind-down, this title invites repeat reading and perhaps a virtual trip online to listen to bird calls.