Review: Bird Talk: What Birds Are Saying and Why

Bird Talk: What Birds Are Saying and Why by Lita Judge

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Communication is a nice slice through a wide, wide topic. This was a good choice.I almost think Judge could have focused on one bird and gone for depth?--maybe she'll do a follow-up.

I noticed Judge did an interesting suspense thing early in the book, where she gave a teaser on one spread and then delivered on it at the page turn. But then this disappeared later in the book as it got more cramped with content.

I think I may have a hard time with the informational book review, because the approach seemed so basic. There is so much I've heard about bird communication research over the past ten years that I'm disappointed as a reader not to see it. So is the age orientation of informational text always going to get in the way of my aesthetic experience as an adult? I haven't needed to pretend to be a child, or project my experience onto children with story or poetry picturebooks thus far. If I have to do so with informational text, it's an indictment of the genre (or is it of me?).

I enjoyed the author note at the end. It qualified her not through her own science credentials, but because she grew up around ornithologists--both grandparents! Life experience and depth worked well for me. I also just enjoyed quickly reading each bird's techniques--while it was basic, I didn't already know the information for every bird.

Sources? None given. It could have been the Cornell ornithology lab with all its sound file--give us something!



View all my reviews