Where Does a Tiger-Heron Spend the Night? - Hardcover

Margaret Carney shares her deep love of nature through weekly newspaper columns as well as her books for children, which include At Grandpa's Sugar Bush and The Biggest Fish in the Lake. She wrote Where Does a Tiger-Heron Spend the Night? with the hope of turning young children into birders before they can read. She lives in Whitby, Ontario.

Mélanie Watt is an acclaimed children's book author and illustrator. Her books include the Scaredy Squirrel, Chester and Learning With Animals series, Augustine, Leon the Chameleon and Have I Got a Book for You! She lives near Montreal.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Vibrant, up-close acrylic illustrations of unusual birds make this lift-the-flap book appealing to children, although the vocabulary is challenging for all but the most advanced primary readers. For example, bright oranges and purples paired with deep browns combine for a dramatic view of a turkey vulture, accompanied by the text, "Why does a vulture soar high overhead?" The answer, however, which with the lift of a flap shows a group of vultures picking bones, contains words that defy the decoding strategies of most young readers: "It's sniffing the wind for the scent of the dead." The lyrebird is said to be "mimicking other birds warbling in spring," and the snacks that a roadrunner "grind[s] in its gizzard" are "Tarantulas, rattlesnakes, beetles and lizards." While the rhyming text is interesting, it is not typical of books intended for a young audience. The lively illustrations and presentation of facts make this book a delightful read-aloud for budding naturalists, but it is an additional purchase for most collections.
Lynn Dye, Keheley Elementary School, Marietta, GA
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