Bird Talk

Jonas, Ann

3.68

41 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 0688141730 ISBN 13: 9780688141738

Publisher: Greenwillow, 1999

Portrays a variety of birds and their calls, using the "memory phrases" that birdwatchers have devised to help them hear and remember birdsongs

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About the Author:

Ann Jonas, author-artist of Splash! and Round Trip, lives in Germantown, New York.

In Her Own Words...

"I grew up in a family that attached great importance to knowing how to do as many things as possible, from skating to skiing to cabinet-making to repairing the family car. Everyone always had several projects going at the same time, and drawing was considered an incidental skill, a tool for planning a project rather than an end in itself. It was only after a few years of dead-end jobs following high school that I decided some specific training might be helpful, even necessary. I attended Cooper Union and after graduation went to work in the studio of my former graphicdesign instructor.

"A few years later my husband, Donald Crews, was inducted into the Army and subsequently sent to Germany. I followed and found a job with a German advertising agency, trying to design ads with a "Madison Avenue" look for them. We lived in Germany for one-and-a-half years, sharing a rambling apartment with German friends. Our first daughter, Nina, was born there. When we returned to the United States, we started our own freelance design business.

"Our second daughter, Amy, was born, and the design business grew. It wasn't until both daughters were nearly ready for college that I considered doing books for children, and then it was only through the urging of my husband and his editor, Susan Hirschman.

"My first book, When You Were a Baby, came together very quickly. I drew strongly on memories of my children and their friends at two and three and their evident pride in their accomplishments. Two Bear Cubs was next and then Round Trip, which was the working out of an idea that had interested me in the abstract. With succeeding books, I've been trying to explore other ways of stretching children's imaginations. I find myself drawn more and more often to designing books that involve some sort of visual play. It seems like a wonderful opportunity to encourage children to look at familiar things in different ways while offering the appeal of a game or a puzzle. If I can also deal, even if only lightly, with some of a child's deeper concerns, then I feel that I've served him or her as well as I can."

From Kirkus Reviews:

PLB 0-688-14173-0 Jonas (Watch William Walk, 1997, etc.) ``eavesdrops'' on dozens of birds, then transcribes their phrases in this unique guide to bird calls. Intrigued by ``memory phrases,'' descriptions of bird songs found in birdwatching guides, Jonas playfully places birds in conversation with each other, then graphically provides a human context that makes their talk humorous. For example, birds whose chatter is ``Kitty-kitty-kitty,'' ``Meow,'' or ``Kitty-Go'' are posed flying over, wading beside, or hovering near a tabby cat hiding in beach grass. Perched outside a classroom window, the mockingbird calls, ``Teacher, teacher,'' alongside the yellow-throated vireo and magnolia warbler who have school-related reading and numbers as part of their songs. The funniest spread pairs birds such as the Carolina wren, who sings ``Tea-kettle, tea-kettle'' with the Rufous-sided towhee, saying, ``Drink your tea, drink your tea,'' outside a kitchen window where the stove boasts a whistling tea kettle. Another has the same towhee exclaiming, ``Hot-dog-pickle-ickle-ickle'' next to the common nighthawk singing, ``Pork, beans'' from a tree that shades a picnic site. Each bird is deftly drawn in true-to-life colors with a preciseness of line that makes for easy identification. The accompanying sounds are presented in clearly delineated speech bubbles using varying sizes and fonts. It's hard not to warble along, inspired by the riotous conversations in this comely book that is sure to have readers ``cheerily-cheer-up'' with ``glug glug glee.'' (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright �1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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