![]() ![]() Their Rip van Winkle–ish return is archly comedic, with the pair, a medical miracle, realizing (at last!) how much they’ve lost and how baffled they are now. ![]() Henry and Frances haven’t aged since the accident that buried them in snow and froze them for 30 years in the Swiss Alps. The incompetent parents from The Willoughbys (2008) find themselves thawed by global warming. ![]() Still, young readers will flock toward the bird friends and may not mind that the simple plot is easily resolved.Ī facile, fairly conflict-free picture book with charming character design and enough science facts to inspire animal lovers to research further. Some of the words are printed in a different color for no apparent reason, and the backgrounds and word balloons are a bit amateurish. With character designs a bit reminiscent of Mo Willems’ Pigeon and Duckling, Newton’s charming, simplistic illustrations might encourage children to attempt their own drawn versions of the bird friends or the rocklike horseshoe crabs. Young readers may also pick up enough interesting tidbits about horseshoe crabs to want to investigate the fascinating creatures on their own. The plot ends up with no real conflict or character development, since Nate never has to take a stand against his friends’ prejudice and is able to convince them without much trouble, but the story does offer a lesson in empathy, imagining what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. Still not convinced, the friends won’t help until Nate encourages them to imagine themselves stranded on an island somewhere. What if they sting? Once again, Nate offers some facts about the crabs: They don’t sting, they’ve been around since the dinosaurs, and they’re useful to humans, who don’t otherwise appear in the book. Nate offers some interesting facts about horseshoe crabs: “April through June, around the full moon, the Horseshoe crabs come out to play.” But when Nate encourages his friends to help the crabs get back to the ocean, the friends reject the idea: The crabs are too creepy looking, they protest. But when they arrive at the beach, they discover that their usual place is covered with horseshoe crabs. Nate, a blue bird with a short, round beak, and his friends Tern Tern, PJ (a pelican) and Gully (who doesn’t appear to be a sea gull) decide to go fishing. Several bird friends overcome their reluctance to help unfamiliar animals in a colorful but lightly plotted picture book by debut author/illustrator Newton. ![]()
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