Starred Review This is a big, beautiful book of birds. The watercolor illustrations joyously spill across pages, portraying an amazing variety of feathered creatures busily interacting with one another. As in his previous oversize picture books starring bugs, beasts, and the deep blue sea, author and illustrator Zommer creates page-filling spreads (some vertical, some horizontal) that are teeming with detailed drawings and brief informational blurbs (usually five or six per topic, each consisting of a sentence or two) pleasingly incorporated into layouts and visually reinforced by nearby examples. Some entries concern specific species (cranes, robins, hummingbirds, albatrosses), while others provide information on shared traits (feathers and flying, migration, nests). Even bird aficionados might learn something new: puffins stamp their feet when they're grumpy; flightless emus migrate by walking 300 miles; birds have beaks because teeth are too heavy for flying. And as if there's not enough going on already, readers are tasked with searching for an elusive egg that reappears throughout the pages. There's an index and list of important vocabulary words as well as tips on attracting birds, but the real draw here are the pictures. This is a book that needs to be looked at again and again, slowly and carefully; the perusal will result in fresh discoveries every time.

Zommer surveys various bird species from around the world in this oversized (almost 14 inches tall tall) volume.While exuberantly presented, the information is not uniformly expressed from bird to bird, which in the best cases will lead readers to seek out additional information and in the worst cases will lead to frustration. For example, on spreads that feature multiple species, the birds are not labeled. This happens again later when the author presents facts about eggs: Readers learn about camouflaged eggs, but the specific eggs are not identified, making further study extremely difficult. Other facts are misleading: A spread on "city birds" informs readers that "peregrine falcons nest on skyscrapers in New York City"—but they also nest in other large cities. In a sexist note, a peahen is identified as "unlucky" because she "has drab brown feathers" instead of flashy ones like the peacock's. Illustrations are colorful and mostly identifiable but stylized; Zommer depicts his birds with both eyes visible at all times, even when the bird is in profile. The primary audience for the book appears to be British, as some spreads focus on European birds over their North American counterparts, such as the mute swan versus the trumpeter swan and the European robin versus the American robin. The backmatter, a seven-word glossary and an index, doesn't provide readers with much support.Pretty but insubstantial. (Nonfiction. 8-12)