It’s a pretend futuristic catalog that sells bird parts so that you can build your own bird.
This is surely one of the most offbeat picture books I’ve seen in recent years. How about this: The Publishers Weekly review (one starred review of several) calls it “unsettling and unforgettable.” Booklist describes it as “original, somewhat disturbing, and wholeheartedly bizarre (but in a good way!).” Yes, all those things, and I like it - and my own children absolutely delighted in it. This one is slightly macabre in spots, though I’ve sat here for entirely too long at my keyboard, thinking that “macabre” isn’t precisely the word I want. Now, this is one of the most bizarre picture books I’ve seen in a while, which at the very least brings to my mind this guy exclaiming things like “DON’T BE BORING.” This book definitely has that goin’ for it. flies solo as one of the most unique books for bird-lovers of all ages, and despite its zany premise, will spur lively environmental and scientific discussions.Here’s a quick post to share some art from Kate Samworth’s Aviary Wonders Inc.: Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual, to be released by Clarion in March. Samworth’s stunning oil paintings are as bright and cheerful as the underlying message of habitat destruction is serious.Īviary Wonders Inc. The ‘catalog’ is peppered with cheeky advertising banter alongside some very real facts about endangered and extinct species. The second half of the catalog is amusingly devoted to assembly, troubleshooting tips, and even includes an order form. The catalog offers an assortment of feathers, bodies, beaks and legs for bird lovers to create a feathered friend to call their very own. after noticing that birds vanished shortly after loggers chopped down their homes. Modeled after an old-fashioned mail-order catalog, this fantasy avian sales prospectus is the brainchild of logging company magnate Alfred Wallis, who established Aviary Wonders Inc. Samworth says the inspiration to sketch a bird catalog came after listening to New Orleans residents talk about the eerie lack of birdsounds post-Katrina. But what if carrier pigeons could once more take flight, simply by assembling various interchangeable parts? Debut author-illustrator Kate Samworth explores this imaginative possibility in a book that is by turns funny and unsettling. Hunting, habitat loss and climate change are driving bird species to extinction at a record clip.
Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual: Renewing the World’s Bird Supply since 2031,” by Kate Samworth, Clarion Books, $17.99, 32 pages, ages 9-12. Reproduced with permission from HMH Books for Young Readers.
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