Who's the baddest bird in town? Not sure if the chickadee would have been your first guess but in Monica Silvie’s debut picture book, Chickadee: Criminal Mastermind illustrated by Elina Ellis, readers will discover all about chickadee’s criminal past.

Chickadee was raised by loving parents and after 16 days heads off on his own. When the winter comes he discovers his penchant for theft and likens himself to the greatest thief in the forest. But is he truly a criminal?

Monica Silvie cleverly weaves non-fiction information about one of Canada’s most common birds, with a hilarious story of intrigue. Chickadee thinks he’s a thief after finding a vault of gold and stealthily taking that gold and hiding it in hundreds of different places. Readers will delight in all of the hilarious places the “gold” is hiding and I can just picture them joining in to let chickadee know that he is actually just taking seed from a bird feeder left there by humans.

Monica Silvie writes in a combination prose and comic style with chickadee and the children sharing their thoughts through speech bubbles and the tale chickadee is telling to the other animals in just regular test. 

There is fantastic back matter in this book. There are two pages at the back filled with facts about the black-capped chickadee. She also provides readers with other books and websites to explore to learn more about wild birds. I would love to see this book used in an outdoor education setting since chickadees are also quite tame. It would be an excellent complement to an exploration and possible feeding of the chickadees, especially in the winter season.

The illustrations by Elina Ellis are spot on and add to the humorous tone of the tale. Big bold illustrations of chickadee in the forest complemented by the landscape and other animals entice readers to pick up this book time after time.