A deceptively simple narrative structure reveals the myriad ways birds prepare for their offspring's arrival.
Jennifer Ward describes their approaches in four-line stanzas. For the woodpecker, "Mama built a little nest/ inside a sturdy trunk./ She used her beak to tap-tap-tap/ the perfect place to bunk." Long gray lines on the black wings of the birds emphasize the tree's vertical majesty and make the hollowed-out home pop on the page. Next, a hummingbird builds "a cup so wee and snug," its "walls of moss" so tactile in Steve Jenkins's (My First Day) collage that readers will want to touch it. Near each stanza, a brief scientific explanation offers more facts. The story may be read straight through, or the reader can linger to take in more information about the scene pictured. Ward also gives examples of mothers who lay eggs in nests "another made"; fathers who serve as "living nest[s]" (the emperor penguin); and even a "Daddy [who] built a little nest./ And then he built another./ And another. And another--/ hoping to impress my mother" (wrens). Some nests float (grebes); others are scraped out of a high ledge (falcons).
Ward brings the book back to the child in the closing lines: "You have a nest--your very own!/ A place to rest your head..." Jenkins depicts a robin's nest outside a child's bedroom window, then, with a turn of the page, shows the nest as the child would view it from inside the house. This excellent first science book doubles as a bedtime story. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness