Counting Birds starts off as the story of a man named Frank Chapman, who decided to do something to combat what was a Christmas tradition in some places 100+ years ago: shooting birds for fun.

His idea of an annual "bird count" has since developed into a massive citizen science project organized by the Audubon Society. This book celebrates the joy of discovery and conservation of our feathered friends, in a way that reminds me of The Sky Painter, which features another bird lover who also decided to find a way to depict birds without shooting them.

That spirit of conservation is present here, displaying an attitude of enjoyment and appreciation of wild birds, and portraying the thrill of the "hunt" as well as the benefit this participation can be to science.

The last few pages give some more information on how the bird count works, and how the average citizen can participate. This is definitely something I'd like to be involved in someday, and would make a great homeschool project.

Oh, and, plot twist! When I read the page about calling owls, I couldn't help but think of Jane Yolen's Owl Moon. Turns out the author of this book is actually her daughter, who is the girl who goes owl calling with her father in Owl Moon. Nifty!

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

I was truly disappointed in this book. It certainly is a good idea to get kids out into the fresh air and exercising as well as hopefully doing something for the environment, but what exactly are they doing for the environment? This is where this book failed for me and why I cannot rate it positively.

There was another minor issue in that this book is designed as a print book and not as an ebook. In the ebook, the pages are presented not as single pages, but as double pages meaning you can only view them two at a time, which means they're small, and you have to fiddle with the magnification to see them optimally. Having them as single pages viewed in portrait format would have helped, but the pages are designed as two-page spreads, so that effect would have been lost. My advice is not to buy this for reasons I will go into, but if you want to buy it, do not buy it in ebook format.

I said above, "hopefully doing something for the environment" because there was nothing in this book to say what the purpose of bird counting is or how it actually benefits the environment or the birds. The original idea, from Frank Chapman in 1900 was that instead of going out shooting birds, which seemed to be something of an insane and barbaric tradition on Christmas Day (I wonder how many doves were slaughtered on Christmas Day by the good Christians with their guns?), he would call upon readers of his magazine to go out and do nothing more than count them, and report their results in to the magazine.

That's great, but if that's all it is: counting, then the logic is flawed. The people who went out counting were not necessarily the same people - and I would argue it's highly unlikely they were the same people - as those who were out shooting. And merely counting was doing nothing to save any birds.

Now you can argue that keeping a yearly tally of birds at least allows us to track their numbers over time, but this is precisely what the author has failed to argue in this book because she offers no justification whatsoever for counting the birds, and there needs to be one for all those children who will ask, as I would have as a child: how is this helping the birds?

Just knowing that, say, bird species X is in decline isn't going to do species X a damned bit of good unless action is taken on that knowledge - and assuming those numbers are reliable. But are they? There was no word on that, either. Nor does a wish to act do any good unless the government can be moved to put protections into place - and good luck with that with the present business-obsessed administration who are determinedly destroying environmental protections as fast as they can and outright lying about pollution and climate change.

This book was some twenty pages long and nowhere in it was any kind of word about exactly how this is helping, save for one tiny, brief, and rather vague paragraph on page fifteen. Now word on how the numbers translate to help or even to a plan to help. No word on what kind of help has been given over the last century. No word on whether it has worked. No word on species saved, if any. No word on how conservation has improved. Nothing.

This is unacceptable and unforgivable, because what it means is that this author is asking us to mindlessly go out and count birds - and that's it! Hey, I do, and you should do it too! That's not rescuing the environment, it's acting like a sheep with its attendant wooly thinking. Don't treat your readers like sheep. Treat them like intelligent human beings and give them solid reasons for asking them to do as you do. It's for this reason that I refuse to commend this book as a worthy read. It falls far too short of where it needed to be.

My child loves birds so was particularly interested in looking at the illustrations in this book which were unusual and beautiful. I love that this continues to spark her interest in the world around her as well as being educational

Feathered Birds by Heidi E.Y. Stemple illustrated by Clover Robin is a wonderful children's book that you and your children will love so badly.

The story inspired this book the one of mr. Frank Chapman creator of the magazine Bird-Lore, who with his originality and method, you will see, fought in every possible way, for trying to keep the environment plenty of cheerful and beautiful birds.
No sure you, but, every morning I get up with the cheerful good mornings of a lot of birds of every species and there is nothing more beauty than to see life in action through them. They are the sunniest creatures of this world. They nest, they create a special place for them and for their little "children," generally every spring; they are friendly if you will be friendly with them.
It's an important children's book this one, because it will also open the chapter of rare birds spieces, the one that can seriously risk an extinction. It's important that through their parents, children would start to appreciate the importance of taking great care of the environment where they live in and how to protect it.
For them, for the future generations and because we don't have another world to fighting for, so let's keep this one in good health.
Birds included. Too beauty for damaging them.

I insist: parents, buy a lot and a lot of children's books about nature, animals, planets, solar system to your children because it is important, crucial for them to discover who we are, what kind of world is this one, existing animals, flowers, plants, etc, for developing a good and healthy attitude, respect, education and passion for the environment.

Counting Birds is on sale on October 2! Don't miss this appointment. Illustrations are wonderful, I love the cover: I have a special passion for owls.


I thank NetGalley and Quarto for this eBook.

Anna Maria Polidori
Anna Maria Polidori a 7:44 PM

This is the delightful story of how , what is now known as the Audubon Christmas Bird Count got started. But, surprisingly enough, even thought the Audubon Society now oversees it, it wasn't started by Audubon, but rather by Frank Chapman.

This picture book tells how people used to shoot birds for fun at Christmas time, not to eat, but to see how many they could shoot.

Shooting the birds
<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-29-at-11.27.41-PM.png">

Frank got people interested in counting, rather than shooting, and so, there are many ways to count, including counting the owls.

Calling the owls out
<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-29-at-11.28.01-PM.png">

This is a wonderful book to simply explain how the bird count began, and why it is important, and fun. There is also a bit int he back with more information, for those who want to know more about Frank Chapman and the count.

Highly recommended for schools and libraries.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Counting Birds is a new non-fiction title by Heidi Stemple. Due out 2nd Oct, 2018, it's 32 pages and available in hardcover. Aimed at younger readers (ages 6-8ish), it would make a really nice read along for younger children as well.

Beautifully illustrated by Clover Robin, the artwork is mixed media painted collage and does a lovely job of enhancing the text. The book is based around the life and early bird counts started by Frank Chapman which grew into the Audubon Christmas bird count.

It's so important to include young people in learning about our world and wise stewardship of our environment. This book would make really good support material for a classroom unit on conservation and birding.

It's a really worthwhile and appealing book. I loved the detail in the drawings.

Five stars.