A Bird Is a Bird [Paperback]

What is a bird? And how is it different from a mammal or a reptile?

Some birds are huge and some are tiny. Some birds are fantastically colorful and some are plain. But what do all birds share? Early nonfiction expert Lizzy Rockwell explains that birds have beaks, wings, and feathers, and hatch from eggs. Other animals might have some of these features in common, but only a bird has them all. 

Only a bird is a bird! 

A clear text and beautiful illustrations cover dozens of different birds and their shared characteristics, as well as the unique qualities of unusual birds, such as penguins and peacocks.

A great companion to Rockwell's A Mammal is an Animal. Lively but minimal text with short sentences and a rhythmic pattern make this valuable both as a read-aloud and as an option for budding readers. Rockwell's bright, eye-catching images, rendered in gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil, add to the appeal. —School Library Journal
 
The full-page pictures and minimal text are just right for young readers, but older children will enjoy learning the names of the multitude of birds inhabiting the scenes, ensuring that this book will go far with new readers and budding birders. —Booklist
 
Simple and straightforward, just right for preschool listeners. But it has the added attraction of accurate, full-page or double-page–spread illustrations of more than 40 species of birds, labeled and shown in typical habitats. . . . Widely useful, this should be a welcome addition to the nature shelf.  —Kirkus Reviews

Rockwell walks readers through the characteristics that make birds, well, birds, accompanied by vivid, mixed-media portraits of dozens of avian specimens. . . . Direct writing and handsome labeled images of birds in their native environments (egrets and spoonbills hunt in shallow water, an owl and whip-poorl3=