Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s picture books
Weblink
www.ruzzier.com

A ROUND OF ROBINS

Katie Hesterman Sergio Ruzzier

Sixteen fresh and funny poems welcome a new batch of robins to the world.

Food Fight
Jumble, jostle, rumble, squirm;
Dad has landed with a worm.
Game of tug-of-war begins--
Biggest bossy baby wins.

Mama's a skillful architect, constructing a sturdy nest, while Dad's a champion turf defender. And those hatchlings! Such fluffs of plump perfection!

Katie Hesterman's vibrant verse celebrates this awesome circle of bird life, as we follow a pair of robin parents from nest-building and egg-laying, to raising their hungry hatchlings, and finally sending off their flying fledglings. Sergio Ruzzier's brilliant, candy-colored art pays tribute to all these stages of a robin's life cycle, reminding us that while robins may be common, they are also extraordinary!
OUTSTANDING TEXT: Katie Hesterman's poetry captures the important moments in the bird family's life story with both grace and humor, and is a joy to read out loud.

Available products
Book Published 2018-03-01 by Nancy Paulsen Books
Book Published 2018-03-01 by Nancy Paulsen Books

Comments

Hesterman debuts with 16 poems that lightheartedly chart the development of a family of robins: "Three is too few./ Mama adds more./ Now it's just right:/ One clutch of four." Baby birds often look ungainly and weirda perfect fit for Ruzzier's gently surreal brand of cartooning. His newborn robins have big eyes, rubbery limbs, and (eventually) a fuzzy carpet of feathers: "Changing, growing and it's showing.../ Now they're fluffs of plump perfection." The action unfolds against a backdrop of vaguely alien vegetation and watery skies of pink and blue; there are some tussles among the new siblings, but Hesterman focuses more on the birds' growth and increasing independence. It's a charmer of an animal family story, with rhymes that are a pleasure to read aloud.