The Starling's Song by Octavie Wolters is a heartwarming and clever, even witty illustrated storybook. It's a lovable booklet for children who have just learned to read and of course, it's great for pre-schoolers for devouring the pictures with their eyes and listening to the story. Actually, it's a fun distraction for anyone, just saying.

The black-and-white illustrations are amazing. Everything is monochrome, only our hero's beak and legs are yellow. It makes it easy to spot our protagonist. My favorite page is when the starling talks to the kingfisher above the water and everything is mirrored, even the text. Grab a mirror and go codebreaking if you don't believe me.

As for the story, a starling is enraptured by the beauty of our planet and wants to sing a song about it. He asks other bird breeds for advice on what to include in his song. Every piece of advice reflects the given bird's "personality." They often add something wise or consolatory about life on Earth. I appreciate the peacock's self-confidence, I suppose it's a good thing to learn to be self-confident early on.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for sending this book for review consideration. I read a DRC. All opinions are my own.

The Starling’s Song by Octavie Wolters is a beautifully illustrated children's book with an important message about the beauty of the world around us and how we often need to see through each other's eyes to appreciate that beauty. Would definitely read this again and enjoyed it tremendously as an adult, also!

Wolters use of woodcut illustration for depicting her, brief, narrative of a Starling composing it’s song harkens, partially, on the knowledge that Starlings are (by nature) imitators. Though each bird encountered has been meticulously crafted by Wolters, the sentence structure for these interactions feels (at times) convoluted and neglects the bigger question: why does the Starling care so much for the opinion of others?
Repetition is used (somewhat) effectively throughout. But, after regarding the opening pages of the text, alongside the closing, we note the striking portrayal of a peacock. Where were they in the midst of the story? Their thoughts are omitted. Why?
Moving on, the diction appearing on page 8 feels cluttered: is this a work of metafiction? Is the text supposed to be visible to the bird as well as the audience? The reflection of it could be done without.

What a lovely, whimsical read... how often do we stop to notice the little things and celebrate the tiny miracles of everyday life? Lovely read and accompanying illustrations.

What a beautiful book. The simple but effective illustrations look striking though the book. I especially liked the small details like the reflection of the text in the water..

Gorgeous, sweet little book. The drawings are stunning, as is the way the text is integrated. I would buy this for any child I knew.

A strikingly attractive book, the artwork is superb and the presentation is understated. This is a real gem which would appeal to both children and adults. A starling wonders what to include in his song, so he asks the other birds for their thoughts. They each highlight reasons to be thankful in the world and the song is complete. This is a joyful and uplifting story, that would make a great gift.

The art in this book is stunning. I loved it so so much. The story was fine? It’s basically just about how beautiful nature is and a bird is singing a song. But really, this could have no words and I’d keep staring at it.

A lovely story ideal for young children. I read this book with my 9 year old son who is obsessed with birds. He really enjoyed the poetic style the story was told in. Story and illustrations are really wonderful

Beautiful drawing, simple yet strong, very like the text. Every page delightful to the eye. It’s only 17 pages long so sing out loud, just like the starling. I’t beautiful to the ear.

It is a delighfully charming book about stopping to see the beauty around us. The pictures are simple but stunning. This is certainly one to treasure with a very important message

The story is a lovely idea, and the illustrations are beautiful, but it was quite disappointing. The story would've worked really well if it rhymed, what with it being about a song, but it didn't and so everything fell a bit flat. The writing didn't sound interesting or quite work for the age group the book targets.

This is simply gorgeous. Beautiful illustrations and such lyrical writing. I can't wait to own a copy of this, it deserves to become a classic read for children.

A cute little children's story about what a starling and other birds find beautiful in the world. The story was lovely, with each bird talking about something that was special to its species, giving you a little insight into the differences between bird species and also just some general things with a lovely little message.
I loved the illustrations! They were gorgeous and made a nice change from all the really bright children's stories. It was completely in black and white except for the yellow beak and legs of the starling but they were still cheerful illustrations with lots of lovely soft patterns and beautiful birds.

This is a warm, inspirational story one that I wish everyone would embrace. The starling has this wish to write a song, and so she tells every bird she comes across of her dream and they cheer her on, and add more beautiful things to fuel her song and in the end you have such an awesome song about nature and the birds that encounter it.
Visually, the artwork is appealing and it's such an awesome book for children, makes me wish as adults we had more of this too.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Children's Books for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

The Starling's Voice is a short children's story about a starling who wants to sing about all the wonderful things that he sees every day. Before he does this, he decides to speak with all manners of birds in the forest to compile all the things he shouldn't forget in his song.

This book is truly beautiful! The art is whimsical, and the story is thoughtful. It emphasises the importance of appreciating the small things in life, specifically the nature that surrounds us all (a.k.a., stopping to smell the roses of life). I would have loved this book as a child, and it still is heartwarming to read now.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a unique story with an important message to read your kids before bed!

The Starling’s Song is simple yet wonderful story about the interconnectivity of nature. It’s about taking time to see the beauty in all things including ourselves.

I think this book is a brilliant story for all ages and one I can’t wait to buy and keep to re-read over and over again.

Cute book with amazing art work and a nice story line.

I really liked the beautiful pictures and found it nice to have a children's book about a different type of animal instead of the usual forest animals!

This is so cute! I loved the style of illustration (wood cut images in black and white). The writing is super beautiful and well done. It's about a starling's that want to sing and goes asking to everyone what should it sings about. In the end the song made is a praise to the nature, the sky, the water, the trees and life as a whole. Really cute! Definetly would read again.

*Thank you Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this eARC*

This is a very sweet little story, beautifully illustrated in black and white. An ideal book to read to under fives.
This simple tale of a starling loving all the beauty in the countryside around him wants to sing a song about it, he talks to the other birds and they each tell him to add something dear to them to his song.
A lovely story by Octavia Wolters.