Take a look at these books to help the budding bird enthusiast in your life learn more about their feathery friends! The books I have picked cover a wide range of additional topics while still teaching about birds and have wonderful engaging stories sure to entertain while they learn! Check them out
The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon
This book tells the story of a young Audubon and how he combined his love of the outdoors, birds, and painting together! He shows kids that you can combine unlikely passions and make a career for yourself as a scientist and a artist. The book also similar to it’s subject touches on a lot of other subjects like history, science, art, writing, and is written in a way that is engaging and not too long with beautiful illustrations. Best for ages 5 and up.
The Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City
This is based on a true story about a wild red tailed hawk who with his mate made a nest on top of a Fifth Avenue apartment building. While the public loved the hawks the residents in the building not so much because the hawks made a mess of the building. The book covers the conflicts that occur with wildlife in urban spaces as well as environmental activism, adaptation, and wildlife protections. Best for ages 6 and up.
Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf
Is an empowering story about the 11 year old budding ornithologist Olivia Bouler. She wrote this book about herself and how she painted pictures of birds to raise money to help with the gulf oil spill. Over the course of this project she ended up sending out more than 500 paints and raised more than $175,000 for the Gulf Oil Spill Recovery. Her story is a valiant campaign that shows that kids with passion and persistence can make a difference. The book is written in her own words about birds and her campaign, and it also includes illustrations and pictures of her work. Especially powerful for young scientists, artists, conservationists, and philanthropists similar to Audubon it shows you can combine your passions and make the world a better place. It is written for ages 9 and up but younger kids can connect with the story and all the graphics included in it.
This is the third book in the My Side of the Mountain series by Jean Craighead George. All the other books have been equally memorable when connecting kids to nature. Since it is the third book this review contains some spoiler’s to the first two books. In this book Sam finds out he can’t keep Frightful because she is an endangered bird. So the story follows Frightful as she learns all the parts of surviving in the wild like eating, finding, a mate, and raising chicks. Don’t worry though Frightful does learn because the next two books in the series you may want to check out are about Frightful’s daughter and I have included them below! Written for ages 10 and up.
Book 5: Frightful’s Daughter Meets the Baron Weasel
This book by Gill Lewis follows the story of 11 year old Callum, his friend Iona, and a Osprey. It covers a lot of great information about Osprey and other birds as well as some of the science and technology used for studying and tracking birds. It is a great book that also teaches about compassion and kindness. However it does cover some heavier topics like the sudden death of a friend who is also bullied and another kid loses her legs to amputation. It is rated for kids ages 9 and up however a lot of kids say it might be over all better for ages 10-11 and up since they are closer in age to the boy.
And finally this wouldn’t be a bird book list without the award winning Hoot by Carl Hiassen. This book touches on a theme of environmental activism that is sometimes destructive but also the idea that plucky kids can make a difference to help save endangered animals. The kids however in many cases are breaking the law in a “means justify the end mentality” as well as many of the adults are portrayed as simply mean and or stupid and not as well rounded people. Kids however relate to this book it has won awards and been made into even a pretty great movie. I grew up reading this book and honestly I believe it was an entertaining way to learn about animals and environmental activism. I didn’t turn into a hyperactive hippie who goes and destroys equipment from this book so pretty sure your kids are fine reading it. As well as characters being portrayed skipping class and breaking rules is nothing new to students and it adds to the conflict of the story. Easy book to read for class with a potential reward of watching the movie to compare and contrast the two! Written for ages 10 and up.
And that is all she wrote! So i hope you have enjoyed my review of 8 Boss Bird Books to help your kids learn about birds! This by no means is a extensive list of bird books i will continue to add to this on my Pinterest Board of Boss Bird Books for Kids so check that out for more bird book recommendations as well as any of my other boards for great environmental topics covered in books, movies, blogs, videos, activities, lesson plans, & so much more!
Join My Email List!
Receive March’s Newsletter Opportunities for Kids Outdoors
Check out my resources on other social media platforms!
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzODkauQ6mXEB1xoT6MsPpQ
Blog: https://ecoelsa.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElsaLitecky
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoElsa/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoelsa/
Pintererst: https://www.pinterest.com/EcoElsa/pins/
Leave a Reply