How to Bird

September 4, 2023
Via digital photo collages featuring kids of various abilities and skin tones in parks and city spaces, Hamid presents birding as an all-inclusive pastime, inviting readers in with the statement “Anyone can bird.” Basic, practical lines introduce tools that birders might use (binoculars, a field guide), suggest spaces for finding the quarry (“If you can, go to places with trees or water”), and supply basic instructions (“Look for contrasting colors and bird-shaped silhouettes”). Throughout, digitally treated photographs picture children gazing at and listening to common Eastern U.S. species. On one page, colorful oversize type prompts sensory attention: “Red-winged blackbirds sound like a referee’s whistle!” Final lines highlight birders’ different noticing “superpowers” and invite readers to record their observations in their own ways. It’s an inclusive how-to that hails young nature lovers. An author’s note concludes. Ages 3–8.