An interesting book on birds for kids. With Speedy the shift, we learn about so many things about birds. How they're built: the wings, the feather that covers what area and for what purpose, their difference in beaks. How they live: some on air, some on land, and some on seas. Including some stories about birds, this book is very informative. The illustrations make the book more enchanting to the readers.

5★
“We birds have a magnet-sensing body part in our eyes so, unlike humans, we can see the Earth’s magnetic field. It’s a magnetic current that flows around the planet and helps us to find our direction, like an invisible pathway in the sky.”

This is a terrific book, full of bright illustrations, broadly coloured enough for cartoon-like characters but detailed enough that each bird is distinctive. There are a lot in the cover picture.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“I am Speedy the swift, and I will show you what it’s like to be a bird.”

Speedy [I guess Swifty would have been too corny, but I digress] begins by saying that all birds have the same names for parts of their bodies, but the parts themselves can be very different from one bird to another.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“My tail is forked. I close it up when I fly fast. Some birds of paradise have very long tails, much longer than their bodies!”

Some of the variations are compared.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“Fabulous Feathers”

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“Brilliant Beaks”

Speedy appears on many pages in a round, sticker-like stamp that says “Fly with the swifts” and includes an interesting fact about swifts. Here is the one from the corner of the All About Us page that lists the parts of the body.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“We swifts can sleep while we fly.”

Wouldn’t THAT be a handy skill?! There are plenty of these little pearls that are probably news to any adults reading this with children, which to me is a big selling point. These are simple but make you curious to know more.

There are ‘regular’ facts, fun facts, and even some legends and folk tales about how the birds acquired their characteristics, something like Rudyard Kipling’s "Just So Stories". “How the Peacock Got His Colors, Why the Kiwi Can’t Fly, Why the Kookaburra Laughs” are a few in this book.

As Speedy moves around the world, the scenes change to broad landscapes of natural habitat, skies with flocks of geese in formation, and examples of birds sheltering together.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“Some flocks twirl and turn in the sky as they travel to their roost. It’s called a ‘murmuration’ and it helps the little birds escape lurking hunters such as hawks, who find it hard to focus on a swirling, whirling flock.” (That’s what looks like a big swarm of bees on the top right of this picture.}

There is history, with the wartime feats of carrier pigeons, and there are the increasing dangers to birds from human activity: climate change, chemicals, habitat loss, and rubbish eaten by birds.

But it also shows how scientists are helping to track birds and how national parks and nature reserves are creating safe places where we can visit and learn about birds. At the end is advice about learning when, how, and what to feed them.

This is a wonderful resource and the kind of ‘coffee table’ book I’d leave out for anyone to browse through to encourage young birdwatchers. The layout is attractively designed, and the illustrations are delightful. Of course it should be in all schools and libraries!

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing’s Happy Yak for the copy for review. It’s a beauty!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Excellent book about amazing birds. Lots of information and pictures.

A beautifully illustrated book narrated by Speedy the Swift as he takes you on a journey with the birds. Filled with facts about the wide range of species of birds and how to identify what they might eat and who you might hear singing. I learned loads from this book and will definitely return to it with a class when the opportunity arises as it shares information in a carefully thought out and engaging manner.

Meet Speedy the Swift, and fly along with him as he introduces you and your child to all things BIRD.

Folktales from around the world are interspersed with pages packed with information about our feathered friends, such as survival secrets, and stories of amazing migrations.

The delightful illustrations by Vivian Mineker perfectly compliment this fact-filled book that deftly manages to combine learning with story-time.

Quite the welcome jumble, this comes to us as if from the point of view of a swift, who busily wants to tell us all about birds. Some double-page spreads are about specific species – the owls, for example, some a certain aspect of their life such as their beaks or their birdsong, while more wordy pages give us famous birds from myth and legend, such as the Maori thoughts on why kiwis don't fly. It's all bright and colourful, and pitched well to the primary school market, relying on factoid-styled presentation of text peppered randomly around the page at times yet still being nicely educational. A strong four stars.

Absolutely loved this book and will be buying a copy when it comes out. The book covers a variety of interesting facts about all aspects of birds (what they're like after hatching, how feathers work, how different birds have evolved to survive in various climates, why there are different beak shapes, where certain birds like to nest, how and when some birds travel, and what we can do to help stop the disappearance of many bird species due to climate change). It also includes several bird tales from other countries, such as ""How the Peacock Got His Colors" from India, "Why the Kiwi Can't Fly" from New Zealand, and "The Wise Owl of Athens" from Greece. The artwork is beautiful, engaging, and informative. I would definitely recommend this book for any child (or adult!) that has an interest in nature and/or birds.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC for review.

The Secret Life of Birds is a wonderfully detailed and beautifully illustrated book of bird facts and folklore, narrated by Speedy the swift. Speedy takes the reader on a world-wide journey where we learn some fascinating and unusual facts about all sorts of different birds. I learned lots of new and surprising things, including the fact that hummingbirds can fly backwards and swifts can sleep while they fly! I love how the author combines fiction and non-fiction by interspersing the factual narrative with a variety of colourful bird tales. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and I found myself smiling the whole way through this book. The Secret Life of Birds is a perfect read for any nature-loving kids, and could also be easily used as the basis for an extended unit on birds in a primary classroom.

A big thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group-Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the advance review copy.

Blog review to come on release day.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for the ARC of this book!

My children (6 and 9) really enjoyed this as our science lesson today. The illustrations were lovely, the text easy to understand and a comfortable amount for a read aloud, and there was a mix of facts we knew and ones we didn’t. I liked the mix of facts and folklore stories, though it confused my children a little bit because it was hard to separate that most of the book is completely true things and some is not.

'The Secret Life of Birds' is a fabulous introduction to birds for kids! You can read this to younger kids, with older kids, or some will enjoy it all on their own. The layout is unique to this type of book it is a mix of stories and facts. There are several short stories about specific birds relating to their lore or history. Interspersed are pages with facts about plumage, beaks, and so on that you might expect to find in a bird book for kids. On top of all that the artwork is lively and engaging. The book is great!

WHO SHOULD READ IT: This book for kids is unique in that there is something for all ages. Pre-K will enjoy being read the stories and looking at the illustrations. Older kids can really learn from the facts and use it as a reference. It is a perfect addition to a homeschool morning basket or unit study on birds.

Thank you @Netgalley and @quarto.knows for early access to this ARC in return for an unbiased and voluntary review

What a beautiful book! The information is well chosen and explained in simple terms for children, accompanied by many colourful illustrations to make this book captivating. It includes some tales from different cultures around the world, making the birds feel very alive and giving this book a good balance between narrative fiction and information.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC opportunity.

Wow! Such a beautiful and incredible book for children and adults! There was so much information and the illustrations were stunning! I loved the ebook, but I will have to get my hands on an actual copy.

100% recommending this book!
Look for it on July 5, 2022!

Thank you to NetGalley, and Quarto Publishing Group- Frances Lincoln Children's Books, for the arc

Very beautifully illustrated and full of wonderful facts and information! This book is sure to catch the eye of any child and would be a great addition in a classroom!

Wow, this is a really useful and educational book for children, about birds. My daughter and I loved the book, and we learned a lot from it. I am an avid bird feeder and bird watcher, so I was really excited about this book.

The book is full of a lot of comprehensive knowledge and information about birds, told by Speedy the Swift, a little blue bird. There are also beautiful bird stories throughout the book, which are just lovely.

The images in the book are stunning! They are bright, colourful, and beautifully drawn.

I highly recommend this wonderful book, not just for children, but for adults too!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Amazing, informational, and beautiful book for all the small avian lovers. With bold and colorful information and plenty of categorized pages of bite sized information, this book is great for using over time for a unit study or a nightly reading, to make the fun last. Throughout the informational tidbits about the various birds of the world are stories of birds from different cultures as well, adding to the whimsy that flies in the skies above us.

This book has so much great information and stories about birds. The illustrations are gorgeous! I’d recommend this book for children who want to learn more about birds.

This book is really beautiful inside out!
Informative and educational for young readers but it's done so well with eye-catching cover and illustrations. The content is so well presented. It's full of information but it doesn't read like a textbook for kids.

Absolutely recommending this book!

Thank you, Quarto Publishing Group- Frances Lincoln Children's Books, for the advance review copy.

This book is so cheerfully and invitingly illustrated. Inside these colorful pages are folk tales, as for example, “Why the Kiwi Can’t Fly” and “Birds in Balloons,” a tale from France. There are also sections on everything from “Fabulous Feathers,” to “Brilliant Beaks,” to “Birds of the Night,” and more.

Begin with the short “Dear reader” section and then dip into this book in any order. Speedy, the Swift accompanies readers through these pages, beginning with his birth.

I found this book to be very appealing. It would make a perfect gift for a nature loving child.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

An amazing educational book that draws the child in and keeps them interested. Being able to relate the information to a specific bird makes it much more relatable then just stating the information. The art is bright and draws your attention to every detail. The Stories are just the cherry on top in a very nicely done book. The book is being pre ordered after I write this! 5 stars

The Secret Life of Birds begins with the story of Speedy the Swift but it is so much more. Speedy the swift takes you to the sky and teaches you about many beautiful birds and what makes them different and unique, and how their traits help them exist and adapt to where they live. My favorite parts are the bird tales from different countries worldwide and the great tidbits of facts and illustrations of the different species of birds.