Birds on the Brain

In a follow up to her popular story Book Uncle and Me, Uma Krishnaswami delights readers with a new story featuring Yasmin, Reeni and Anil.

The three friends are back and are given an assignment in school to create a survey to share with their family and friends. The perfect topic is of course birds since everyone loves birds don’t they, especially since Bird Count India is right around the corner. The friends soon find out that people actually don’t know about Bird Count India and even worse, the Mayor’s office is trying to shut the whole thing down. On top of that, the istri lady is going to be forced out of business if she can’t find a way to make her ironing more eco friendly. Good thing the friends are here to help.

Uma Krishnaswami has created a fun story and cleverly shared environmentalism, climate change and community activism in this very fun middle grade story. The Bee and I really enjoyed reading it together and discovering lots about endangered birds and green energy projects which are right up her alley. 

Uma Krishnaswami transports readers to India in this book and shows us how change can be hard but is possible. Change makers come in all sizes and even young readers can be changemakers in their communities by asking questions and persevering for the answers that make sense.

I love that this book has short chapters making it a great book for readers who are just starting to read longer chapter books and making it perfect for bedtime reading. When you have to read until the end of a chapter at bedtime, having short chapters is so key.

Lightly illustrated by Juliana Swaney, readers will get a bigger picture about life in India as well as a break in the text keeping the interest high.