You and the Bowerbird

by Maria Gianferrari, Maris Wicks (Illustrator)

Overview

Follow the Satin Bowerbird as he searches for the perfect welcome mat for his new home, in this delightfully colorful and action-packed nonfiction tale by award winning author Maria Gianferrari, and illustrated by comic-star Maris Wicks.

Just on the edge of the rainforest,

Between your house and the trees,

Bowerbirds collect, pillage, and steal!

They swoop through the air,

And creep around the forest floor,

Searching for pretty objects everywhere…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250849878
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	08/15/2023
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Maria Gianferrari lives in northern Virginia with her scientist husband, artist daughter, and rescue pets, Becca the dog and Lucia the rat. She has written several books for Roaring Brook Press, including Bobcat Prowling, Hawk Rising, and Hello Goodbye Dog.

Maris Wicks is a writer and illustrator of science comics, as well as a self-proclaimed gigantic nerd. She has written, drawn, and colored comics for First Second Books, New England Aquarium and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as Spongebob Comics, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/04/2023

As playful as it is informative, this simplified graphical narrative combines the labeled sketches of a child’s field journal with mildly slapstick incidents in the life of an Australian satin bowerbird. Satin, as the child calls the bird, builds an elaborate twig bower and collects blue objects to attract green-feathered Pea, a prospective mate (“A rosella parrot feather waits like a welcome mat”). When other male bowerbirds loot the installation, the child—a note-taker portrayed with brown skin—surreptitiously donates a blue sock to replace the lost swag. Gianferrari’s lively descriptions and surprised exclamations establish a breezy tone (continued in “Bower Power” back matter), while Wicks varies angles and perspectives, sometimes supplying a birder’s view in goggle-shaped “binocular” panels. Comical cartoons and an enthusiastic documentary voice make for a splendid and informative read-aloud. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

*FIVE starred reviews!*
*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year*
*A Bank Street Best Book of the Year*

★ "Delightful, tongue in cheek, and compellingly romantic." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "A supremely entertaining introduction to an irrepressible animal." - Booklist, starred review

★ "A lovely amalgam of science and play; with careful maps of the action, this makes the world of birding thrilling." - School Library Journal, starred review

★ "Comical cartoons and an enthusiastic documentary voice make for a splendid and informative read-aloud." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "Curious...[and] bright. Gianferrari puts out her own welcome mat for young naturalists." - Horn Book Magazine, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 08/25/2023

PreS-Gr 1—A young girl loves spending days in her tree house observing birds and recording what she sees them doing. Wicks opens the book with a childlike illustration on lined notebook paper. This is unexpected and welcoming because it encourages young children to do the same. Satin is a bowerbird who is doing his best to attract a mate by building an avenue bower. An avenue bower is an U-shaped structure made from a multitude of sticks. Satin is a good builder, and there's a pretty female, Pea, who's interested, but other bowerbirds keep raiding it, instead of working and getting their own sticks. The young girl observes this and decides to help Satin without interfering, and so he wins his mate and Pea hatches her eggs. The "you" of the title is the girl, who has brown skin and black hair in two puffs; her actions teach children how to appreciate the natural world and how to be a scientist. VERDICT A lovely amalgam of science and play; with careful maps of the action, this makes the world of birding thrilling while delivering a very happy ending.—Laura Ellis

School Library Journal

★ 2023-04-24
The stressful courtship ritual of a male bowerbird, as seen by a young observer.

Satin Bowerbirds are native to Australia, and during mating season the males build elaborate structures on the ground out of natural and found blue materials—buttons, bottle caps, pieces of glass, even socks—to attract females. It is not an easy job—not only are the females picky, but rival males will swoop in at the slightest opportunity to steal the best bits and mess up the rest. Here Gianferrari records the ups and downs of Satin, one such hopeful swain, as he carefully builds and rebuilds his bower, drives off interlopers, and dances enthusiastically when green-feathered Pea, a likely looking prospect, doubtfully lands for a lookie-loo. There’s really nothing for it but to cheer him on. Playing this arduous ritual as a romantic comedy, Wicks depicts Satin looking over his bower with a critical eye, fussing over it, expressing confusion and astonishment when he returns from various forays to find it wrecked, and climactically casting a flirtatious side-eye at Pea as she watches him flapping and high-stepping. A dark-skinned child in the illustrations, watching all of this as raptly as readers will, fills notebooks with sketches and comments and provides a satisfying sense of closure by later spotting Pea in a tree, presiding over a nest full of eggs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Delightful, tongue in cheek, and compellingly romantic. (more information on bowerbirds) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews