Three Fun New Picture Books About Birds!

Flight School, written and illustrated by Lita Judge.  This sweet, very funny story tells of a penguin with the "soul of an eagle" who travels (by boat) to flight school to learn how to fly.  There the incredulous birds (love the bespectacled feathered teacher) kindly tell the Penguin it might be impossible, but let the excited pupil stay.  After some ill-fated attempts that cause the Penguin to walk away dispiritedly, the helpful flock hatch a plan to get our hero soaring through the air.  It all leads to a great surprise ending.  Judge's charming, cartoonish illustrations capture the highs and lows of Penguin's turbulent trek.  A joy from start to finish.  This resilient Penguin deserves to stand proud next to Helen Lester's and Lynn Musinger's ever-lovable Tacky.

Peggy, written and illustrated by Anna Walker.  In this beautifully rendered comical story, a chicken named Peggy loves living in a small house on a quiet street, with sunflowers in her yard.  She enjoys her morning routine which, we see in a series of Polaroid-type illustrations, includes breakfast, jumping on a trampoline, doing pull-ups on a sunflower (or at least that's what I think she's doing).  Drama occurs when a giant gust wind blows Peggy far, far away to the noisy, crowded city.  Lost, she tries to find her way home.  Walker's illustrations are packed with details for young readers to explore, and kids will love the fact that Peggy spends much of her quest sitting on an unsuspecting human's head.  Walker introduces a fun friendship element when a flock of pigeons come along to help our heroine.

Mama Built a Little Nest, written by Jennifer Ward, illustrated by Steve Jenkins.  Packed with Jenkins' excellent illustrations (he truly is one of the best), this lovely informational picture book shows readers various kinds of nests for various kinds of birds.  Strange but true facts about hummingbirds and cuckoos and others pop up and kids will be fascinated by their nest-building behavior.  Ward's rhymes soar off the page, and there are also facts sprinkled about each nest throughout.   Going through this I learned so much about our feathered friends.  My jaw dropped a few times.  It's quite simply a stellar example of non-fiction picture book writing for a younger age group.