Peek and be Piqued.

Another very cool book for the duo that brought us Out of Sight. 

Birds of a Feather by Francisco Pittau and Bernadette Gervais provides us with a peek into the world of fascinating factoids about all things feathered.

The number of caterpillars a great tit eats determines how yellow its belly is.

There are six spreads/sections that present attributes of birds that the reader uses to guess the bird it fits with.  Each spread/section has a unique ‘puzzle’ format that involves flipping-the-flap to find out an interesting fact about the featured bird.

Eurasian eagle-owls live for about 20 years in the wild though they can live for more than 60 years in captivity.

For example, a pair of bird’s legs are outlined in white on a black background.  The legs look long and have thick looking toes with claws.   By pulling down the flap we learn that the legs belong to an ostrich and that these birds are the fastest things on two legs, able to run 70 km (44 miles) per hour.

Mallard duck females lay more than half their body weight in eggs.

A couple of pages further into the book and we have several rounded, roughly wing-shaped cut-outs illustrated with coloured feathers.  Each cut-out reveals a piece of information about a range of smaller birds.

Zebra finches pass their songs from father to son.

Turn the page and we have a giant size serving of several eggs of various colourings, patterns, and sizes.  (I'm uncertain whether the eggs are accurate to life-size or not.)  Under each egg is a tid bit of information about the associated bird.

Seagulls are able to drink seawater and then expel the salt via glands located above their eyes.

This oversized book is a treat to peruse and play with.  Good for working on predicting and observation skills and would add interest to science units about birds.  But you don’t need to have a curriculum connection to bring this book into the classroom.  It’s good fun with lots of random facts.

Recommended for elementary grades.


Today is Nonfiction Monday at Shelf-Employed, a list of blogs that have reviewed a nonfiction children's title.  Worth checking out.