Ten Birds: Read Aloud Rhymes to Bend and Break

PreS-Gr 3—These are "read aloud" verses precisely because they sound funny. A concept book with as many tricks as a bird has feathers, the rhymes themselves are small disasters that force the descending number to follow the rhyme pattern no matter how torturous: "Three tired birds were nesting in the straw/When it burst into flames with a terrible roar,/So then there were TWOAR." Not only are the numbers awry, but with each three- to four-line verse on the left page, a bird goes missing on the right. But a teaser exists: the bird that will fly off is pictured just below the rhyme, so the eye is compelled to quickly scan across to the other side in a satisfying search. At last, all of the birds gather back together, but astute visual readers will find that the end pages reveal a sweet change has occurred. The subtle hues evoke another time in which children's-book illustrations carried a kind of magical glow-think Arthur Rackham's soft, muted shades. A uniquely quirky flight of fancy.—Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA