Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Fine Feathered Friends: Poems for Young People
Illustrator: Jason Stemple
Poetry
For ages 6 to 11
Boys Mills Press, 2004 ISBN: 978-1590781937
In this beautifully presented collection of poems and photographs we are going to meet fourteen different kinds of birds. From the barred owl to the white pelican, and from the colorful Atlantic puffin to the roadrunner, we crisscross the country getting to know these avian wonders, some of whom we will recognize and some of which are new to us.
Each of the photographs shown in the book has inspired Jane Yolen to write a poem about the bird in the picture. In rhyme and haiku the author delightfully captures the beauty and unique nature of each bird. With humor she also imagines what her subjects might be thinking or feeling and she even wonders what it might be like for the pelican to eat its “wriggling” meals which must make it very “hard to speak.”
In addition to the photograph and its poem each double page spread includes an annotation which provides the reader with a little further information about the bird shown in the photograph.
There can be no doubt that this mother and son team work very well together to create books which are a joy to look at and to read.
