Paddle Perch Climb: Bird Feet Are Neat

Children learn the many ways birds use their feet to find or catch food. Angus presents seven birds that represent the diversity of feet found in the bird kingdom. Clever formatting gives readers the opportunity to guess each bird before a turn of the page reveals it in its habitat. “If you had long slender legs and toes, you could… // Wade like a heron to sneak up on a school of fish.” The first double-page spread shows a close-up of long yellow legs against the blue backdrop of a pond. The second pulls back to show the entire bird, an orange fish (reminiscent of a Goldfish cracker) in its long beak. Swans, a roadrunner, a woodpecker, cardinals, towhees, and an owl round out the cast. Backmatter provides additional facts about the species and a “Fun Foot Fact” for each; a section about adaptations that includes a chart of birds along with their habitats, feet, and beaks; a few activity ideas; bird-watching tips; and a resource list. Angus’ paper-collage illustrations are vibrantly colored and employ variously patterned and textured papers to highlight the birds, their habitats, and/or the other animals around them (each of the seven is pictured with a predator in the background). Marbled water, downy swan chicks, tree bark—all are vivid and arresting. Paired with a book about beaks, this is sure to start many youngsters on the road to becoming avid bird-watchers. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

— Kirkus Reviews (January 2018)

In “Paddle Perch Climb: Bird Feet Are Neat” children ages 4 to 8 will meet the feet that help birds eat! Kids can learn a lot about a bird just by looking at its feet. The size, shape, and type give you important clues about where a bird lives, how it moves, and what it eats. Young readers will discover seven birds, each with a different type of foot, including a roadrunner with strong legs and feet running across the desert to snag a lizard for lunch, a cardinal with flexible toes perching on a branch to pick berries, and a heron with long legs and toes wading through a river to search for fish. Bright, bold full color artwork combined with a simple text by author and illustrator Laurie Ellen Angus invites children to guess what birds will be revealed on successive pages. But look out! Predators are lurking, and they’re hungry, too! “Fun Foot Facts,” food chains, bird watching tips, and more are presented in Explore More for Kids, Teachers, and Parents in the back of the book. While unreservedly recommended for family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library Pets/Wildlife picture book collections, it should be noted that “Paddle Perch Climb: Bird Feet Are Neat” is also available in a paperback edition, and a digital book format.

— Children’s Bookwatch, Midwest Book Reviews (March 2018)

Lively paper collages and a rhythmic text, depicting the everyday foraging life of birds, offer gentle lessons and a little surprise on every other page. Laurie Angus’ pleasingly rambunctious characters hop, scratch, and hitch their way across the pages, as children learn about the many ways birds make their living.

—Julie Zickefoose, author, Baby Birds: An Artist Looks Into the Nest (Dec. 2017)

The accurate details of this beautifully illustrated book make it a wonderful introduction to birds for children. They’l l lean how birds eat and survive in the wild. I recommend it for all parents and teachers.

— Edward C. (Ted) Beedy, PhD, ornithologist and author, Birds of the Sierra Nevada: Their Natural History, Status, and Distribution (Dec. 2017)

The feet of birds contribute to their eating skills. All feet – webbing between toes, slender legs and toes, strong feet and legs, toes with claws, small flexible toes, powerful feet with sharp talons – contribute to different eating habits. Endnotes elaborate on each bird in the informational text: mute swans, the great blue heron, a greater roadrunner, red-bellied woodpeckers, northern cardinals, spotted towhees, and a great horned owl. Additional facts about birds, their habitat, feet, and beaks enhance the informational text and illustrations. For readers ages 4-8.

— The Oneota Reading Journal (Fall 2018)