FICTION

Two Little Birds

by Mary Newell DEPALMA
illus. by Mary Newell DePalma. 34p. Eerdmans. Feb. 2014. Tr $16. ISBN 9780802854216. LC 2013024835.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 1—Two little birds set out on the adventure of migration when they see the sky full of birds heading south-but once they've flown "beyond all they knew," they endure storms, explore unknown seas, and fly for hours and hours until they arrive at a beautiful place, full of the "flutter and chatter of many birds." After a while, they dream again of home, and travel back, where they make their own nests and start "something new" with mates of their own. However, the story spends so much time on the journey and the arrival that the birds' longing for home and "the songs their father taught them" seem a bit forced. The luminous colors, winsome expressions, and glorious textures of DePalma's mixed-media collage illustrations round out the spare, lyrical text.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
Two adorable bird siblings (based on the orchard oriole of North and Central America) hatch and begin their first year of life. Each milestone they encounter is portrayed effectively through the soft colors of DePalma's emotive mixed-media illustrations and simple, repetitive-sound sentences that explain the actions of the birds and underscore the instincts that drive each behavior.
Two adorable bird siblings (based on the orchard oriole of North and Central America) hatch and begin their first year of life. Each milestone they encounter -- a joyful entrance into the world, mild perils on the way to their wintering grounds, and the happy ending of finding mates -- is portrayed effectively through the soft colors of DePalma's emotive mixed-media illustrations and simple, repetitive-sound sentences that explain the actions of the birds and underscore the instincts that drive each behavior. "The little birds did what little birds do. They fed, they frolicked, they grew." The images, such as that of the two exhausted birds flopped over a tree branch after thousands of miles of nonstop flight, are quite effective in evoking emotions familiar to readers to underscore the science concepts. danielle j. ford
Reviewed by Kathleen Kelly MacMillan , Feb 01, 2014

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