The Mountain Bluebird

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-- Hirschi's respect for the environment and its wild creatures permeates this misleadingly titled book which is as much about the mountains and plains of western America as it is about the mountain bluebird. He competently surveys their life cycle, emphasizing people's responsibility for the decline in all three species of bluebird and, in an appendix, offers ways readers can help the bluebird. Heilman's Bluebird Rescue (Lothrop, 1982; o.p.) more concisely outlines problems that affect bluebirds but spends the majority of the book providing directions for building nesting boxes. The color photographs, of which nearly one-third are Hirschi's, are of variable quality; many are taken from too great a distance and are not cropped, and therefore fail to generate excitement in what is a spectacularly colored subject. Buy where interest in the region or the environment is high. --Ellen Fader, Westport Pub . Lib . , CT