mocking birdies by annette simon

mocking birdies by Annette Simon.

One of the pleasures of going to an ALA Conference is the Exhibit Hall and the books. All those wonderful books....

One of my ALA treasures is this picture book, written and illustrated by Annette Simon.

A blue bird sings in blue text; a red bird copies that singing in red text.

Stop singing my song!
Stop singing my song!

But after the initial copycat dialogue, the two begin talking:
"i sing red as the dawn, when the sun peeps hello"
"i sing blue as the noon, when the sun calls to play"

Next thing you know, the two birds are singing together. And red and blue voices overlap to make purple. And then the purple bird shows up! And then there's a green cat. "Skit scat" "copycat" "copycat cat CAT."

The color coded dialogue contributes to the fun. I'm not sure how well it would work in a traditional story time, even with a storyteller who is good with doing different sounding voices, because of the great moment where red and blue overlap to be purple. Instead, I think it would work best with multiple readers, whether its in a small group with one or two beginning readers or with a larger number of storytellers. What I keep picturing in my head: teen volunteers doing a story time.

Other likes: I like how the electric wires become a music staff. And I like how the colors of the rainbow are used. And I also like how the book jacket is different from the actual book cover, with the book cover incorporating the clever red and blue make purple motif.

Confession: while I was getting the book signed, I knew I knew Annette Simon's name but for the life of me could not remember where I'd read about the book and the author. Chris reminded me that he'd mentioned her on his blog, bartography, and then I also remembered reading the cynsations review. Argh, I wish I'd remembered both of those while I was getting the book signed.