BLUES Go Birding At Wild America’s Shores

• Mom’s Choice Gold Award

The Blues Go Birding at Wild America’s Shores is an imaginative illustrated story of five comical bluebird characters named Bing, Lulu, Uno, Eggbert, and Sammi who go birdwatching following in the footsteps of famous birder Roger Tory Peterson from Newfoundland, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and across the Pacific and north to Alaska. In their travels the Blues see snowy egrets, great blue herons, laughing gulls, roseate terns, Atlantic puffins, American oystercatchers, magnificent frigate birds, sandpipers, Brandt’s cormorant, brown pelicans, winter wrens, thick-billed immures, and common loons. The Blues make funny comments about their sightings and send newsy postcards home, while displaying bird notes and field guides with additional details about each type of bird. Many more learning activities and bird-related resources are listed at the book’s end, and beautiful bird illustrations stud the pages ofThe Blues Go Birding at Wild America’s Shores. This book is ideal for natural science study, appealing to children ages 5-9.

— Midwest Book Review (November 2010)

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The Blues Go Birding at Wild America’s Shores is part of a series of books designed to inspire children to appreciate birds. In this book, the BLUES, a group of five bluebirds, follow in the footsteps of naturalist and birder Roger Tory Peterson. They discover birds along all of North America’s coasts from Newfounland to Alaska. Peterson, the author of the landmark Field Guide to the Birds published in 1934, embarked on his original bird watching expedition in 1953.

The book focuses on the habitats and behaviors of several North American birds, highlighting bird facts and birding tips througout. The species covered include Magnificent Frigatebirds and Snowy Egrets.

— Aquarium of the Pacific – Claire Atkinson (April 2012)

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The BLUES are five comical characters. The BLUES’ names are Bing, Lulu, Uno, Eggbert and Sammi. In this book, they learn about the gulls, egrets, puffins, pelicans, cormorants and other species of shorebirds. They follow in the footsteps of the most famous birder of all, Roger Tory Peterson. The BLUES began their journey in Newfoundland, Canada, travel south to the Gulf of Mexico, and across to the Pacific and North to Alaska. Each of the BLUES has a distinctive personality. Bing maps the route; Lulu is the belle who loves everything pink; Uno is one-of-a kind for whom everything goes wrong; Eggbert is the super birder with all the answers; and Sammi is a sportster who loves adventure. This is a wonderful book for children to learn about coastal birds. The illustrator, Louise Schroeder, did the colorful pictures.

Carol L. Malnor is an enthusiastic birder as well as an author and educator. She has developed programs for many different types of students, from high school dropouts to gifted elementary students. Sandy Fuller is a picture book author, illustrator and literary agent. Among her other picture books are Moon Loon and My Cat, Coon Cat. Inspired by a photo of five fuzzy little birds, Louise Schroeder created the BLUES. Louise’s art depicts animated little blue birds that travel far and wide visiting lifelike birds in their natural habitat.

— Nashville News – Mary Barrett (March 2, 2011)

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Maybe you have a child who loves to explore the outdoors, whose always the first to offer his or her bread crusts to the birds or who is fascinated by the colors of the cardinals and blue jays in the backyard.

That’s the type of child who would love the new book The BLUES Go Birding at Wild America’s Shores. Its the second in a series of books about the cartoon character band of bluebirds – Bing, Lulu, Uno, Eggbert and Sammi – who help teach children about birds and birding. It was written by Sandy L. Fuller, who owns a home in Maine, and Carol L. Malnor, with illustrations by Louise Schroeder.

The five main characters are drawn as comic birds, but the birds they see during their travels are very real. The BLUES follow in the footsteps of Roger Tory Peterson, America’s most famous birder, who travelled 30,000 miles for his 1953 birding expedition. In this book, each new “friend” the BLUES meet is given a field guide description and one of the main characters provides notes about the bird.

While traveling Wild America’s Shores the BLUES meet a puffin, a laughing gull, a roseate tern, an American oyster catcher, a snowy eggret, a thick-billed murre, a common loon and more. The BLUES also provide a map showing where they met each of their new friends.

With help from the BLUES, children can learn much about birds who call the coastal parts of the United States home. The BLUES teach with their own distinctive personalities: Bing maps their route; Lulu loves everything pink; Uno is the one for whom everything goes wrong; Eggbert has all the answers; and Sammi is the sportster who loves the adventures.

The BLUES Go Birding at Wild America’s Shores was released in September by Dawn Publications. It is for ages 5 to 9 and is available at dawnpub.com for $8.95 (paperback) or $16.95 (hard cover).

— Raising Maine (October 2010)

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Delightfully detailed illustrations depict the sites to which the BLUES travel and a bird they encounter each location as the quintet follows the route taken by Roger Tory Peterson in 1953. Each of the five bluebirds has a distinctive personality that is shown by his or her comments and actions, but the focus is on the various avian specimens they see from Newfoundland, south along the Atlantic coast, through Mexico, and northward to Alaska. As they make the flight back home to their clubhouse, Uno is finally rewarded by the sight of a family of loons on Loon Lake, MN. Accompanying each double-paged spread that contains a large painting of a particular bird is one of “Eggbert’s Bird Notes,” a postcard to the British fan who prompted their trip, and relevant statistics including body size, wingspan, habitat, food, and sound. This slender volume is appealing and informative and will be treasured by future ornithologists. Thirteen birds are pictured; a bibliography, map, and further resources are included.

— New Jersey Youth Services Book Evaluation Program (December 2010)

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The Blues Go Birding is a nice introduction to ornithology as well as a jaunt through geography for children and adults. This deceivingly slim paperback is packed with fun and educational information about birds along America’s shoreline and various regions, refuges, and parks that are bird-friendly. The book contains a storyline narrated by five bird characters who are introduced on the title page, large and colorful illustrations of each of the 13 birds in their environment, a little “bird note” trivia box, a geographical note of where the bird can be found, and field guide info like wingspan and food for each bird. It was a little overwhelming when I first cracked the book open but readers can select which sections to focus on, instead of trying to read all the parts at once.

Although geared towards an older crowd than my preschooler, it still held her interest and she enjoyed the cartoonish bluebird characters who fly through the pages to describe various birds. The inane bluebird comments in the comic speech bubbles will capture children’s interest since it did my daughter’s.

Veg parents should note there are a couple bird illustrations with fish in their mouths and noted food sources for all the birds include fish, insects, amphibians, etc. (The great blue heron can also eat small mammals!)

Perfect for the road-tripping homeschool parents, teachers focusing on a bird/geography unit, or just for bird lovers and watchers.

— Vegbooks (August 2010)

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If you wanted to see a lot of waterfowl, where would you go? The BLUES are back. This band of five adorable little cartoon bluebirds, Lulu, Uno, Eggbert, Sammi, and Bing, like to sing and have returned from their first adventure to find a new song in The BLUES Go Birding Across Wild America. They discovered how cool is it to go bird watching, so they decide to follow the route of the greatest bird watching trip ever, taken in 1953 by Roger Tory Peterson with his friend James Fisher from England all around the shoreline of North America and recorded in his book Wild America. Each opening of the The BLUES Go Birding at Wild America’s Shores is devoted to a stop that they BLUES make and one of the birds which they see there.

Their itinerary begins in Newfoundland, Canada, where they find an Atlantic Puffin. Next they go to S. Monomoy Island, near Cape Cod, MA, and notice a Roseate Tern. Then it’s on to Chesapeake Bay, MD, and the American Oystercatcher. At Merritt Island, FL, there is a Laughing Gull. The Everglades National Park in Florida contains over 360 different kinds of birds, including the Great Blue Heron. Also in Florida, the BLUES visit Dry Tortugas National Park where the Magnificent Frigatebird can be located. Avery Island, LA, is home to Snowy Egrets. Sanderlings, Willets, and Whimbrels, all members of the Sandpiper family, inhabit the shores of Lydia Ann Island on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Other stops include Isla Coronado, Mexico; Point Lobos, CA; Destruction Island, WA; and the Pribilof Islands in Alaska. What birds will they see in those places? And Uno is crazy about loons. Will he ever see one?

I suspect that everyone enjoys looking at and listening to birds. “So God created…every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:21). Birds are pretty to look at, and they make lots of interesting sounds. But more importantly, they are a vital part of the ecology of the earth. While the BLUES are fictional characters, the birds which they see are quite real. Each page not only has a lifelike illustration by Louise Schroeder of the bird under consideration but also contains more material about that particular bird in sidebars of “Eggbert’s Bird Notes,” postcards that the BLUES send to their biggest fan, Rosie Robin in England, and facts from Roger Tory Peterson’s famous Field Guide to the Birds. In addition, the last page has websites for finding more fun information about birds and even listening to bird songs and calls, as well as projects for becoming a citizen scientist. This is truly a wonderful means of introducing children to birds and bird watching.

— Home School Book Reviews – Wayne S. Walker (August 25, 2010)

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The BLUES’ “Wild America” adventure is a fun and informative introduction to the bird habitats of coastal North America. The fact that the story recalls the adventures of Roger Tory Peterson, the father of modern bird watching and a hero of the environmental movement, is a real plus.

— Mark Baldwin, Director of Education
Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History (July 2010)

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The BLUES captures the pace and excitement of a birding expedition – the satisfaction of seeing a wonderful bird quickly progresses to wanting to see the next wonderful bird. I wish I’d had a book like this when I was seven. The BLUES can help budding birders find the fast track to a joyous lifetime pursuit.

— Julie Zickefoose, NPR commentator, author, Letters from Eden (July 2010)

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From the Dry Tortugas in Florida to remote Alaskan islands, The BLUES takes kids to exotic locations on the hunt for the continent’s most amazing seabirds, all served up with a nice dollop of humor.

— Scott Weidensaul, author, Return to Wild America and Living on the Wind (July 2010)

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. . . The charming BLUES visit islands and sandy beaches of the United States learning about the birds. The Puffin is first. The BLUES learn they can help Puffins survive and explain that project.

Eggbert is busy offering birding tips and writing interesting post cards to friends back home. The other BLUES continue notebooks, postcards and provide interesting information about each bird included in this book.

The BLUES travel from the Dry Tortugas in Florida to remote Alaskan islands. Humor enlivens this book of discover of an amazing variety of seabirds. This is a great book to stimulate the imagination of any reader. What fun for family reading time and planning actual birding trips!The BLUES Go Birding will also provide good information for classroom use.

— Weathorford Daily News – Dee Ann Ray (December 24, 2010)