King of the Birds Review and Other Books About Birds

My kids and I recently checked out The King Of The Birds by Helen Ward from the library and loved it! The storyline feels like one of Aesop’s Fables. The words are carefully chosen and the tale is beautifully told.

How will the birds choose a king? This book so beautifully illustrates the wonderful variety of birds as they each vie for the roll of king based on some special characteristic or quality such as color, size, or nest-weaving. Though their competition they chose to find a king was perhaps not the best method, they nevertheless end up with the best candidate as king (and I don’t want to give away why, how or who as this is the best part of the story!).

This book does a great job of tying together a good storyline, well-chosen words, beautiful illustrations, and educational material. My kids and I were able to recognize several of the birds in the book, and they were interested enough at the end to find out some of the ones they didn’t know. The last few pages of the book contain additional information about birds as well as a key to the birds pictured on each page.

This would be a lovely book to own, especially if your child has an interest in birds, but at the very least it is worth checking out at your local library.

Another of our favorite books about birds that combines story and facts is The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess (also available as a free audiobook on Librivox). We also love An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston. It is full of beautiful illustrations and facts about eggs. We also enjoyed the Peterson Field Guide Coloring Books: Birds when we studied birds in science.