You Nest Here with Me

Frequent mother-daughter collaborators Yolen and Stemple, whose previous books include Not All Princesses Dress in Pink, offer a gentle rhyming bedtime story that spotlights 14 birds' nesting habits and habitats. At bedtime, a human mother lulls her own "nestling" to sleep with verses that flit from bird to bird, before concluding with a reassuring refrain: "Pigeons nest on concrete ledges,/ Catbirds nest in greening hedges,/ Tiny wrens, in shoreline sedges./ You nest here with me." Caldecott Honor artist Sweet's (A River of Words) mixed-media illustrations portray familiar types of birds (pigeons, swallows, owls) alongside lesser-known killdeer, grackles, and coots, capturing their urban, seaside, wetland, or forest environs in bright swaths of watercolor paint and soft pencils. Some vocabulary (boles, tors) and observations ("Killdeer, once their eggs are laid,/ Perform a broken-wing charade") invite further investigation; concluding notes provide explanatory details ("To lure predators away from their eggs, killdeer act like easy prey by faking a broken wing") and other information about each bird. A well-crafted and informative window onto the world of winged creatures. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

PreS-K—As she puts her daughter to bed, a mother shares a soothing rhyme about birds that nest in places far and near. Each rhymed triplet is followed by the repeated assurance: "But you nest here with me." Sweet's watercolor and gouache landscapes reveal adult birds watching over nestlings. Coots hide in cozy cattail reeds; terns wheel above cliffs; plovers explore sandy shores. Each vista includes many details for viewers to ponder. Older listeners (or adult readers) can find additional information about the featured birds in two pages of authors' notes, which encourage prospective bird watchers. However, the book probably will be read most often as a comforting prelude to sleep. VERDICT A worthwhile purchase for collections that need new selections for bedtime sharing.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato