The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this.
An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An economic text punctuated with commas, questions, and ellipses leads readers forward highly textured graphite and deepening, digitally colored compositions surprise and delight.Įchoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.Įach sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. The Night Gardener is Asian, the child pale-skinned, the neighborhood warmly multicultural. The final double-page spread depicting the young man shaping his own playful topiary is an uplifting testament to the effect that a caring adult can have on a lonely child. But no matter-the neighborhood has been changed permanently, as has the boy. The pair’s resulting leafy menagerie in the park is rendered even more evocative when the page turn reveals the blazing deciduous trees dropping their sculpted shapes. The Fan brothers contrast creamy, uncluttered pages of daytime community life with magical forest-green evenings that culminate in an invitation to help. Ensuing evenings yield ever more amazing creatures color creeps into the scenes as neighbors gather in admiration and spruce up their dilapidated homes.
A gigantic, familiar owl has been formed from the tree’s foliage. After the moonlit title page, morning breaks with narration that accompanies this child now gazing in wonder from the orphanage window. Grimloch Lane is a gray place where individuals trudge along wrapped in their own thoughts, until a man carrying a ladder and tools enters their sphere.Ĭlad in almost-gray green-and seemingly unaware of the similarly attired boy drawing a feathered creature in the dirt-he proceeds to a nearby tree.
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