Review: Birds, Nests, And Eggs

Birds, Nests, And Eggs by Mel Boring
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The idea is fabulous: a little simple guide to birds almost every (American) kid can see. The realization, not so much. I get it, birds are of different sizes, the ruler at the end can help with visualization, but my, why not draw eggs to scale?! Their shape is ok, their color is ok, but even the largest eggs in this book can easily fit in the space reserved for them. Instead they are all the same size, about a quarter in diameter. Very helpful. The text says how big they are, but actually comparing a real egg to a life-sized picture can go a long way in identification. Besides, the book is full of tiny little... inaccuracies, let's call them that. What do you mean, the cardinal is "our only all-red bird"? It's not all red, it has a black mask! Summer Tanager is the only all-red bird in the US. There is no such thing as Northern Oriole, and the picture shows a Baltimore Oriole. "Hummingbirds make tiny sounds" you can only hear when it "hovers near your ear"? Have the author ever saw a hummingbird? They sound like tiny helicopters. Or a huge bumblebee. I can continue this list. It's one of the things I never forgive a children's book - factual mistakes that then get stuck in the kid's head and are very hard to chase away.

View all my reviews