Need to Know: Birds

Birds
Author:  Kevin Henkes
Illustrator:  Laura Dronzek
Greenwillow Books (2009)

Another reason kids read is, quite obviously, the need to know.   One of the most beautiful things about being a mom is watching MIrette absorb information.  I am astounded when she blurts out something---like "Mommy, let's go plant a conifer tree."    Where did she learn that?  In this case, it was a lesson about trees at school, but books give our kids the opportunity to learn about such a wide range of stuff!

I am reading a book right now called Up.  It's about a mother and her young daughter who go hiking together.  The mom homeschooled her daughter and wrote that she and her husband decided to homeschool "because we feel children should be met where they are at, intellectually and otherwise."   I respect homeschooling parents, but for me--I don't feel like I know enough to be the sole provider of my child's education.  I find it thrilling when she learns something that I didn't teach her.   I wouldn't have ever thought to talk to her about conifer trees and I don't really know all that much about them, but I love that she knows that.

Likewise, books teach Mirette things I would never have thought of on my own. (and they teach me things too).   It reminds me of the Zen beginner mind, where us adults get this lovely chance to learn new things in a fresh way.   We've read books about loons, books about soccer, books about India.  

But the book I chose to represent The Need to Know is Birds.  In part, because it is so simple and so beautiful in its simplicity, but also because I read it to Mirette every night when she was a baby and it was the first book that she opened on her own (realizing that it was a book not a chew toy).  

Our favorite page is a snowy bare tree with one little red bird and text that reads, "sometimes, in winter, a bird in a tree looks like one red leaf left over." 

I have been a big fan of Kevin Henkes ever since I turned his book Chrysanthemum into a play for a forth grade class.    He lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife and two kids.  After my blog post yesterday on Peter Sis, Kevin Henkes seems like a boring kind-of guy.  He didn't defect, he doesn't write screen plays, his father didn't get stuck in Tibet for two years.   He just seems like a good solid man.  Here's his website with lots of videos, coloring sheets and a great q and a:  http://www.kevinhenkes.com/?page_id=154