Seabird in the Forest

Gr 2—4—Born in a California redwood tree, the small seabird of this life story is both unusual and little known. Normally marbled murrelets, only the size of robins, live year round on the Pacific Ocean. During mating season, the lifelong pairs fly far inland and visit the same tall tree each year to raise a single chick. This picture-book account carefully and even poetically follows one pair and describes the canopy environment, a rich secondary forest where "fallen twigs and needles collect, decomposing over centuries into rich soil." Soft-focus paintings are suggestive of the misty world inhabited by the birds and neighboring creatures. Added factual information appears as an inset in each large view. The quiet, competent text begins with the inland journey of the adult pair and concludes with the lone flight of the month-old chick to its ocean home. The large, glossy volume effectively describes the unfamiliar bird and the redwood ecosystem. The narrative invites reading aloud though the fuzzy impressionistic pictures might be difficult to share with a group. School libraries and classrooms could find varied uses for the book.—Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston