My First Book of Canadian Birds by Andrea Miller (text) and Angela Doak (art)
Hardcover Children’s Picture Book
7 x 9 inches/32 pages
Nimbus Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-77108-635-0 /$22.95
Publication date: October 1 2018
My First Book of Canadian Birds makes me wish I had a three- or four-year-old grandchild. This lovely illustrated hardcover book is the perfect way to introduce a child to birds. The text is simple and clear and evokes as many questions as it answers. On the first page, for example, a mother holds the hand of her child – girl or boy, we don’t know – and points to the sky, saying, “Look up in the sky, sweetheart. A bird! What kind of bird is it?” I can just imagine a bedtime conversation about colour and shape and habitat and the way the bird flies.
This delightful opening is followed by colourful illustrations and text that introduce the child to fourteen different Canadian birds. The first illustration, of an American Robin, shows a mother robin feeding a worm to a gaping nestling, two blue eggs still in the nest, waiting to hatch. The text reads: “This bird wakes up early. It lays blue eggs. It’s an American Robin.” Again, the picture might raise all kinds of questions in a curious young mind: what is the nest made of?; why is the baby’s head pink?; how does the nest stay on that branch without falling off?” The possibilities are endless. Best start bedtime early.
After introducing the reader to all fourteen birds, including the Common Loon, the Red-winged Blackbird, the Atlantic Puffin, the Belted Kingfisher, and the Snowy Owl, the mother asks her child, “Sweetheart, what’s your favourite bird?” It’s a hard question.
Maybe the female Belted Kingfisher? In the illustration, the kingfisher sits on the outer edge of the branch of a tree, fish in her mouth, and looks over the water – as kingfishers do, always on the lookout. I would be hard-pressed not to mention to my imaginary three-year old grandchild that this is one of the few species of birds in which the female is more colourful than the male. That might lead to an interesting discussion!
Or maybe the Ruby-throated Hummingbird whose “eggs are as tiny as a baby’s toes”? Hopefully, my grandchild will have seen a hummingbird by now (here in BC, probably an Anna’s, which looks a lot like the Ruby-throated) and we could talk about how fast they fly – up to 75 wing beats per second – and their unique ability to hover.
Or the Common Loon? Doak’s beautiful illustration shows two baby loons riding on their “mommy’s or daddy’s back.” I wonder what my grandchild would say about the loon’s bright red eye? Would it remind him of the eye of the Spotted Towhee I would most certainly have already shown him in my garden? Would we talk about the different ways human babies get around? Would she be curious about the white necklace around the loon’s neck?
In any event, hats off to Halifax author Andrea Miller, deputy editor of Lion’s Roar Magazine and the author of the board book The Day the Buddha Woke Up. And to illustrator, Angela Doak, also from Halifax, a collage artist and photographer. I love this little book.
Photo by Brie McInnes
Review by Sharon McInnes, author of Across a Narrow Strait (Isle of the Arts Publishing, 2018) and Up Close & Personal: Confessions of a Backyard Birder (Isle of the Arts Publishing, 2012). Sharon is a regular contributor to Bird Canada. She recently moved from Gabriola Island to Vancouver, where she is learning to be an urban birder.