Bird Count

Early on a wintry morning, young Ava eagerly wakes her mom. It’s the day of the Christmas Bird Count, and this is the first year Ava gets to take the tally. In this tale, Richmond introduces readers to Ava and her mom’s unique tradition of participating in their area’s annual bird census. Ava is a citizen scientist, and she’s remarkably familiar with birds, able to recognize a wide variety from their sound and appearance. She’s also well versed in the rules of gathering data for the census: “Count every bird you see or hear . . . Make sure at least two people see or hear it. And don’t count any bird twice.” Big Al leads their team, and together they enjoy a day of exploring, taking count of how many of each type of bird they see. When it gets too dark to count birds, Ava and her mom gather with other citizen scientists for a warming cup of cocoa and to swap stories about the day’s sightings. The inclusion of a notebook page on the right margin where the bird tally is kept provides an interesting fun counting aspect to the book and Coleman’s digital illustrations are playful in this novel winter tale, in sharp contrast to the story itself which is almost no fun at all The cover is particularly inviting as Ava peers out behind big binoculars, bundled up in her winter clothing as snow gently falls in the background, although unfortunately the picture suggests a sense of adventure that never actually occurs in the story, leaving readers waiting for a story to satisfy their piqued curiosity, only to feel unsatisfied by the book’s straight-forward narration of a fun but average day of bird counting.