30 July 2019 ONE DARK BIRD by Liz Garton Scanlon and Frann Preston-Gannon, ill., Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, July 2019, 978-1-5344-0443-4

“When you see me 

Fly away without you

Shadow on the things you know

Feathers fall around you

And show you the way to go”

-- Neil Young, “Birds” (1970)

ONE DARK BIRD folds math, poetry and science into a stunningly beautiful picture book.

It’s a counting book, that counts up from one to ten and, later in the book, from ten back down to one:

“2 birds more 

come winging by

then 3

then 4 

flights multiply”

ONE DARK BIRD is a lyrical poem about the comings and goings of starlings. When read aloud, the rhythm of the book-long poem gives the feeling of swooping and soaring along with birds:

“They wheel away

 from hunting hawk

single birds 

become a flock

Waves like water

dark then light

from down to up

then left to right

a rush, a murmur

out turns in

a dot-to-dot

a corkscrew spin

flapping fervor

noisy clutch

they dance together

without touch”

The title page of ONE DARK BIRD presents a brief explanation of fascinating starling behavior: 

“Sometimes, when starlings are startled or threatened they come together to form a murmuration -- a single-seeming mass that performs coordinated, acrobatic dances in the sky. A murmuration can number in the hundreds or thousands of birds, and is quite a sight to see…”

The mixed-media illustrations portray a multicultural cast of people below, or sometimes watching out the window, as the starlings perform in the sky. There are several close-ups of starlings, providing readers a good look at the shape and coloring of the birds.

It’s all too easy to become blasé about a bunch of birds flying around. The stunning and melodic ONE DARK BIRD provides a sense of wonder about these amazing little everyday creatures.

And if you would like to pair it with another bird-related poem, I recommend the titular poem “A Lucky Thing” from the 1999 picture book of poems by Alice Schertle and Wendell Minor.

Richie Partington, MLIS

Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com

https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/

richiepartington@gmail.com