Have You Seen Birds? by Joanne Oppenheim & Barbara Reid – Review

From the Publisher:

Like many of nature’s wonders, birds are often taken for granted. But these birds won’t go unnoticed! Spring, summer, autumn and winter birds, woodland, meadow, sea and marsh birds — all are brought to life in lively, lyrical prose and rich plasticine relief illustration. Colour and movement about in every word and every detail, making each bird memorable.

Description:

Through Joanne Oppenheim’s engaging poetic verse and Barbara Reid’s intricate Plasticine sculpture illustrations, this title lyrically portrays the widely varying birds seen throughout the four seasons in different habitats (i.e., sea birds, woodland birds,  marsh birds, etc.). The Plasticine illustrations bring an interesting 3-D look to the pages. Many of the scenes are depicted from the perspective of a bird.  The text is placed in various locations on each page in order to best fit the changing size and location of the illustrations.  It is uniquely set up to be a cross-over between non-fiction, poetry, and a picture book. This beautiful title is a re-release of the original 1986 book and includes a new title page and a list (on the last page) of the breeds of birds depicted in the various illustrations.

This picture book has received numerous awards, including:

• Winner, Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award
• Winner, Canada Council Children’s Literature Prize (Re-named the Governor General’s Literacy Award)
• Winner, Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award

My Experience:

My 3-year-old LOVES this book!  We have read it upwards of twenty times.  The 2-year-old twins grab this from the shelf and pour over the illustrations.  It has been fun to watch them reach out and try to touch the realistic-looking 3-D-reminiscent Plasticine sculpture-type illustrations.  The text employs a wide variety of descriptive language that has helped increase my toddlers’ vocabulary – we stopped to further discuss several of the words!  I highly recommend this title as a must-have for preschool and beginning independent reader collections.

     Likes:

• I am so grateful that this new edition now includes a list of all the birds illustrated on each page (list is located on the last page)
• 3-D-like illustrations that leap off the page
• A wonderful introduction to poetry – the text is gentle and engaging
• A wide variety of descriptive language gives a lot of opportunity for introducing new vocabulary

     Dislikes:

• none!

Why/How Use it with kids:

• Play a guessing game trying to identify the birds on each page (use the legend at the end to verify your guesses)
• Research more about any birds that interest your child
• Identify those birds that may live in your area (research may be required) and try to spot them (introduction to bird-watching)
• Create and illustrate a poem describing another type(s) of animal (modelled on this book’s format) – do it in poster or book or e-book format, etc.

About the Author & Illustrator:

Joanne Oppenheim is the author of more than fifty books for and about children. She is the author of more than fifty books, many of which have received awards and critical acclaim. As a former primary school teacher, she is well known for her work in child development, education and children’s literature. In addition, she is the president and cofounder of Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Inc.  She lives in New York City with her husband and is the mother of three grown children and the grandmother of seven.

Barbara Reid is married and has two daughters. She is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen picture books, and the illustrator of over twenty five. Barbara lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When she is not busy writing or illustrating books, Barbara visits schools and libraries, where she is thrilled to meet young students and see the wonderful artwork they create. Each of Barbara’s distinctive and detailed illustrations starts off as a pencil drawing. Then she forms her drawing using Plasticine. She has received every major Canadian children’s book award and in 2013 she received two more outstanding honours: she was named to the Order of Canada and received the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People.