Starred Review In Central America, a child and her grandmother sit in Granny's garden and watch the many ruby-throated hummingbirds nearby. That evening, the girl is flying home to New York City, while below her plane, a sailor watches a hummingbird sleeping in his boat's rigging. At dawn, it flies away, "tiny and fearless," over the Gulf of Mexico. More hummingbirds fly north to the eastern U.S. and parts of southern Canada, closely observed by people along the way. After the birds build nests and raise families, they prepare for their southbound journey that fall. Meanwhile, the girl finds a tiny white eggshell in the park and sends it to Granny. An accomplished science writer for children, Davies contributes a text that weaves strands of story and fact into a satisfying whole. Ray's radiant watercolor-and-pencil artwork creates landscapes that are full of life, yet orderly and graceful. The girl's story creates an engaging element for young children, but the book's text focuses more on the tiny birds and their extraordinary migration. Tucked into spaces within the illustrations, sentences in smaller type provide avian factoids related to the scenes. Lightly combining narrative with relevant information, this beautiful picture book is brimful of quiet charm.

Davies details the ruby-throated hummingbird's annual migration between Central and North America within a tale of an NYC girl's visit with her grandmother in Central America. Most pages include small-typeface information about hummingbirds, distinguishing expository details from the story. Ray employs the birds' jewel tones to create an airy yet lively backdrop that's full of fluttering motion. Includes a habitat map and an explanatory author's note. Bib., ind.

A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.In Granny's lap, a girl is encouraged to "keep still" as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz'unun—"the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages"—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird's migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when "a visitor from Granny's garden" crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds' erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds' flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)