Find the Bird

Children's Literature

Goldfinches have yellow feathers and they like to hide in sunflowers. Owls have brown feathers, just like the bark of a tree. Parrots have green feathers, just like the green leaves on a tree. Early readers will learn about birds in this title, part of the "Hide and Seek" series. Although the content of the book is a great idea for pre-school-age children, the layout and design needed more editing. The book presents a table of contents; however, the headings from the table of contents are not included on the pages. This makes it a bit hard for young readers to know when a change of subjects has occurred in the text. When looking at the table of contents, it appears that the "About the Author" will be a large section; in reality, it is a tiny blurb in very small print at the bottom of the last page of the book. The text is an interesting idea, and the book does give early readers a glimpse into features of nonfiction texts with a glossary, an index, new words, and a page with websites. However, a bit more editing is needed to make this a successful choice for early readers. 2000, Rosen, Ages 3 to 5.
—Mindy Hardwick