Here are 100 books that Snow Birds fans have personally recommended if you like
Snow Birds.
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My father was a life-long falconer. When I was a child, spending time with my father meant spending time with a menagerie of winged friends like goshawks, peregrine falcons, parrots, owls, and even vultures. I didn’t know it back then, but as I went hawking with my dad and helped him care for his beautiful birds, I was gathering a nest of passion and ideas for the writer and poet I would become. Today, I enjoy sharing my love of birds, nature, and books with children (and children at heart).
When is a beak not just a beak? When it's a filter, a drill, or an air conditioner, of course! Each beautifully illustrated page focuses on one bird and the wonderful (and sometimes strange) things it can do with its beak. Kids will love learning about the tools birds come equipped with, and perhaps most importantly, the one they use for breaking out of their eggs!
From Caldecott Honor illustrator Robin Page comes this striking nonfiction STEM picture book exploring the fascinating and surprising ways different kinds of birds use their unique beaks.
Birds around the world have so many amazing kinds of beaks! There are short beaks and long beaks, straight beaks and curved beaks, flat beaks and even spoon-shaped beaks. But what do all of these beaks do?
Discover how beaks of different shapes and sizes are adapted to help birds sip nectar, make nests, battle for mates, and more!
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
My father was a life-long falconer. When I was a child, spending time with my father meant spending time with a menagerie of winged friends like goshawks, peregrine falcons, parrots, owls, and even vultures. I didn’t know it back then, but as I went hawking with my dad and helped him care for his beautiful birds, I was gathering a nest of passion and ideas for the writer and poet I would become. Today, I enjoy sharing my love of birds, nature, and books with children (and children at heart).
This brief, clever picture book really packs a punch! Readers follow two families building a house for their expected little ones. Each action is presented with one simple word. The human uses a construction crane to GRAB lumber, while on the opposite page, a Sandhill Crane uses its beak to GRAB a stick for the nest. They GLIDE, STACK, PICK, SWAY, and HONK their way through the warm watercolor illustrations until they settle on one word to summarize their accomplishment…HOME.
A sandhill crane lifts a stick. A construction crane lifts a log. The two cranes grab, stretch, and stack, working through bad weather and difficult obstacles toward their end goal: building a home for a new family. Told in a simple sequence of verbs, this colorful picture book demonstrates how the mechanical world mirrors the natural world.
My father was a life-long falconer. When I was a child, spending time with my father meant spending time with a menagerie of winged friends like goshawks, peregrine falcons, parrots, owls, and even vultures. I didn’t know it back then, but as I went hawking with my dad and helped him care for his beautiful birds, I was gathering a nest of passion and ideas for the writer and poet I would become. Today, I enjoy sharing my love of birds, nature, and books with children (and children at heart).
Oh, how I wish I had this book when I was a child! Each brightly illustrated page is rich with close-up photos of various birds to look for, field guides, and tips to follow. It’s jam-packed with every activity bird-loving littles could hope for—games, crafts, a birding log for sightings, sticker badges, and a real magnifying glass! Bird Watch is an excellent book for school field trips, family nature adventures, and the perfect gift for young explorers.
The third book in the Backpack Explorer series from the Editors of Storey Publishing invites budding naturalists to head outside for a walk - in the woods, a park, or right in their backyard - to spot feathered friends. Backpack Explorer: Bird Watch leads kids aged 4 and up through the basics of birding, from identifying common birds to learning about habitat and migration and listening for bird songs. The pages are packed with prompts and activities, including 12 interactive field guides (for common birds, nests, eggs, tracks, and more), sensory scavenger hunts, activities such as building a bird nest,…
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
My father was a life-long falconer. When I was a child, spending time with my father meant spending time with a menagerie of winged friends like goshawks, peregrine falcons, parrots, owls, and even vultures. I didn’t know it back then, but as I went hawking with my dad and helped him care for his beautiful birds, I was gathering a nest of passion and ideas for the writer and poet I would become. Today, I enjoy sharing my love of birds, nature, and books with children (and children at heart).
It's never too early to introduce children to the world of birds! This colorful board book with simple information about our feathered friends is a perfect choice. "Peck Peck Peck, the noisy woodpecker is looking for food inside a tree trunk."—curious babies and toddlers will learn animal names, behaviors, and habitats in this sturdy take-along book that is just the right size for little hands!
Young children love watching birds. Now here’s a Hello, World! board book that teaches toddlers all about our feathered friends—with colors, shapes, sizes, and super-simple facts.
Hello, World! is a series designed to introduce first nonfiction concepts to babies and toddlers. Told in clear and easy terms (“Peck, peck, peck! This noisy woodpecker is looking for food inside a tree trunk”) and featuring bright, cheerful illustrations, Hello, World! makes learning fun for young children. And each sturdy page offers helpful prompts for engaging with your child. It’s a perfect way to bring science and nature into the busy world of…
I grew up in a rural area, and loved wandering through the woods, listening to birds, and feeling moss under my toes. Nature always seemed like such wondrous magic. I became an engineer because I loved math and science, but then realized I wanted to share my love of nature with kids. So I earned an MFA in writing and now lean on my science and writing background to make sure that my books and the STEM books I recommend are both well-researched and presented in interesting ways. You can find more of my reviews on my blog for Perfect Picture Book Fridays. I hope the books on my list fill you with wonder, too!
The first page drew me in: “LOOK AT IT. Wounded, worn, twisted, torn. One day, this tree will fall, and this story will end. Won’t it?” Well, hmm. Yes? But then I found out, NO WAY!
From seed to seedling to mature tree, this tree had endured storms, drought, perhaps even a forest fire. It had healed itself, and became a home for birds, butterflies, spiders, tiny rodents, a whole ecosystem. And now, even after its death, it supported new life—a new seedling tree. And so its life goes on.
Oh, this really made me want to hug a tree! True green recycling!!
Discover how a tree’s wounds and decay bring new life to the forest ecosystem in this lyrical nonfiction picture book for fans of Because of an Acorn and A Stone Sat Still.
When a tree falls, is its story over?
There are many ways a tree’s story could end: Gobbled up by a bird as a tiny seed. Damaged by wind or ice or fire. Chopped down and hauled away. But some trees—this tree—survives. And grows old. Riddled with scars, cracks, and crevices, it becomes a place creatures large and small call home.
Nature has been my grounding force from the time I could climb the elm tree in my Kentucky backyard. Snuggling down in the branches, listening to the leaves and birds was my happy place. Eventually, nature became a defining element in my work. It started with an Information & Education job at the Washington State Wildlife department and expanded from there to influence my career as a writer. I take great joy in writing about the natural world, my most patient teacher and oldest friend.
Sometimes stories from the imagination are the best way to convey concepts in all their layered complexity. Concepts like migration. The beautifully illustrated Hummingbirdtells the story of a little girl who moves from her grandmother’s village in Central America to New York City, paralleling a ruby-throated hummingbird’s migratory journey. Information about the hummingbird and its migration are woven seamlessly into the book, shining through the lovely story.
"One of the prettiest works of non-fiction you are likely to see... It is ravishing." The Sunday Times
From Nicola Davies, one of the UK's finest non-fiction writers, and from Jane Ray, one of the UK's finest illustrators, comes and exquisite Nature Storybook about ... hummingbirds! A hummingbird is smaller than your thumb and weighs less than a 20 pence piece - however you measure it, it's tiny. But every spring, hummingbirds that have spent the winter in Mexico fly north to make the most of the warmer weather. They nest as far north as Canada and Alaska; a 2,000…
I’m an Australian zoologist, botanist, and best-selling prize-winning writer. An earlier book of mine, Feral Future, inspired the formation of the Invasive Species Council, an Australian conservation lobby group. My Where Song Began, was a best-seller that became the first nature book to win the Australian Book Industry Award for best General Non Fiction. It was republished in the US. I have co-edited Wildlife Australia magazine and written for many magazines and newspapers, including nature columns as well as features. As a teenager I discovered new lizard species, one of which was named after me.
Leila Jeffreys treats the birds in her photography studio like celebrities destined for the cover of Vogue. She takes time getting to know them and letting them know her, so that instead of just seeing birds she sees into them, and they into her.
Her book of bird portraits is a testament to trust between divergent species. She mentions a black-breasted buzzard coming to accept her photographic gear then suddenly becoming very focussed on her: "It’s an exhilarating feeling when a bird makes this transition and we begin to communicate silently as we study each other. The intelligence of this bird was profound."
The birds in her portraits look variously intense or relaxed, curious or knowing, engaged or merely comfortable, soulful, intelligent, refined, and so much else. As a child, Jeffreys was ‘besotted’ with animals and saw them as people, imagining they could talk to her. That shows through…
Fine art photographer Leila Jeffreys captures the beauty and diversity of some of our most colourful and elegant feathered friends. From the birds of her native Australia to North America, Jeffreys seems to see into the very souls of these model-like creatures with her stunning and evocative portraits.Jeffreys works with animal rescue and conservation groups to find subjects to photograph. Her love and compassion for her subjects is evident throughout, and she captures their personalities in her delightful portraits: Commander Skyring the Gang-Gang Cockatoo, Dexter the White-Bellied Sea Eagle, Mrs. Plume the Budgerigar and friends, are as delightfully whimsical as…
I have been a reader and writer for most of my life. From the moment I could spell a handful of words, my mum encouraged me to write stories. With a few prompt terms, I’d be off. As a writer, I spend countless hours editing and refining my work because it makes me better and because I love it. My favourite part of a book is often a single, beautifully structured sentence. This passion has led me to wonder what other people have to say about writing and language. The more I hear about the practice of writing, the more I fall in love with it.
What I love most about Bird by Bird is the way that Anne Lamott characterises writing as a gift, a giving over to someone else in a manner akin only to being a parent.
While I am not a parent, I am inspired by this idea that the written word can make a person braver and better by virtue of opening them up to the world and people in new ways. Despite the hurdles and difficulties of the practice, which Lamott deftly outlines, she ultimately decides that a writer is pursuing an act of generosity and openness. I really love this idea.
There is a real lack of pretentiousness to Lamott’s writing, which allows you to take these nuggets and accept what otherwise might be sentimental claims that “writing is life” as simple truths.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times).
“Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review
For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom…
Ever since I was a child, sitting on fallen logs in the forest and making notes on the wildlife, I have been an admirer of animals and their mysteries. That animals feel pain, fear, and affection
is obvious, and while we are warned against anthropomorphism, I think the greater mistake is in limiting them to the range of human feelings. I am especially intrigued with the subject of consciousness, believing that all creatures possess their own version of it. In studying the cognizance of other beings, we become better humans, more aware of the unity of all living things. While we have no idea how far we can go in our understanding of animal behavior, it is thrilling to consider the possibilities of this frontier.
In Sightings, Sam Keen lays a gentle hand on your shoulder and invites you to share in his love affair with birds. From the Indigo Bunting to the Lord God bird, he describes his various encounters, weaving bits of his own history with illuminating glimpses into the avian realm. This slim volume is beautifully illustrated with paintings by Mary Woodin and venerable quotes, reminding us that the world, viewed up close, is a sacred place designed for those with open hearts.
In twelve interwoven essays, Sam Keen, the "New York Times" best-selling author of "Fire in the Belly", shares moments of spirituality and insight that he's experienced while bird watching. Keen has been blessed with moments of beauty that he interprets with wit, wisdom, and a bit of down-home philosophy. From his childhood ramblings in the Tennessee wilderness to a heartbreaking drive through Arizona to a stroll on the shore of Lake Michigan on his 70th birthday, here are meditations on such universal ideas as friendship, the nature of the soul, and the disappointment that comes with getting exactly what you…
I have been fascinated by “nature” since childhood, growing up on an island south of Iceland and spending summers on a farm. As a teenager, I would explore my island in the company of friends, often with a binocular and a camera at hand. There was much to explore: a towering volcano above the local community, ancient lava flows, stormy seas – and an amazing variety of seabirds. I witnessed an island being born nearby during a stunning volcanic eruption. My life and career have been heavily informed by this experience, as an anthropologist and a writer I have always somehow engaged with connections between people and their environments.
This is a wonderful book. The iconic song of the blackbird takes the author into a series of exciting reflections that complicate a whole range of concepts often applied to birds, such as dance, space, and territory. I was repeatedly struck by her insights into the lives of birds.
I am amazed by the way she brings bird biographies into focus. At a time when birds (and other animals) are still often seen either as empty categories or simply good to think with, such a perspective feels like a fresh wind. As Despret observes, bird songs are in the process of vanishing. I am inclined to think of her powerful book, with its metaphoric uses of the song of the blackbird, as echoes from Rachel Carson’s warnings in Silent Spring.
In the first days of spring, birds undergo a spectacular metamorphosis. After a long winter of migration and peaceful coexistence, they suddenly begin to sing with all their might, varying each series of notes as if it were an audiophonic novel. They cannot bear the presence of other birds and begin to threaten and attack them if they cross a border, which might be invisible to human eyes but seems perfectly tangible to birds. Is this display of bird aggression just a pretence, a game that all birds play? Or do birds suddenly become territorial - and, if so, why?…
