Birds of a Feather

The team behind A Mirror to Nature again pairs striking, full-color photographs of birds with spirited poems in a full range of styles and forms. A haiku for a kingfisher speaks tenderly to the quirky, diminutive bird ("Hey, girl, fish lover,/ Sitting on the dead gray tree,/ Love the blue Mohawk"); another offering compares a marching group of oystercatchers to windup toys; and a poem for a "solitary wood duck" admires the bird's nobility ("We surrender,/ we surrender,/ we surrender to your beauty"). Stemple's intimate photos capture a great horned owl's gaze, a chickadee's downy plumage, and sandpipers silhouetted against a sunrise, while Yolen's solidly constructed verses show equal affection. Ages 9–11. (Apr.)