The Song of Six Birds

The South African team paired for Tabu and the Dancing Elephants here presents a sliver of a story centering on a girl ""in search of music for her flute."" Strolling through her African village, Lindiwe asks six birds--a crowned crane, hornbill, rainbird, hoopoe, Paradise flycatcher and wood owl--to ""share"" their sounds with her. When each obliges, its signature call (reproduced phonetically, e.g., ""Whoo-hu... whoo-hu-hu"") enters her instrument. As the winged creatures follow her home, the child plays her flute and the birds ""all made music while she ran."" Oddly, while readers see speech balloons of the birds' utterances entering the flute, no pictorial representation of the sounds reappears even though the text claims that ""the air was filled the music of Lindiwe's flute--and the song of six birds."" Gilbert's unadorned, brightly hued pictures portray Lindiwe's fellow villagers as an obviously appreciative audience, but the narrative fails to foster a similar enthusiasm in readers. Ages 3-9. (Dec.)