Birdlore by Jess Keating

Birdlore is a vibrant picture book biography of Florence Merriam Bailey, bird-watcher extraordinaire.

Birdlore: The Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey by Jess Keating, illustrated by Devon Holzwarth. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2025. 40 pages.

• Reading Level: Picture books, ages 4-8
• Recommended For: Ages 4-8

Even as a young girl, Florence was out watching birds. As she grew up, she tagged along with her brother Hart, a scientist. Florence would watch him collect specimens for study; she didn’t love this part because it involved preserving animals in order to study them in a lab setting. Florence much preferred studying them in their natural habitats, alive!

Once Florence grew up, at the university, one of her friends commented on the number of birds she’d seen on a lady’s hat. At the time, high fashion favored hats with dead birds as ornamentation! This was horrific to Florence! She set out to change people’s opinions. But how? By studying the birds alive, in their natural habitat, as she’d been doing all along. In the process, Florence not only helped start the hobby of bird-watching, her efforts also helped curtail the fashion industry’s use of dead birds.

Back matter includes more information on Florence’s life, tips on how to become a bird-watcher, and a fun hide-and-seek game to see if young readers can spot Florence’s favorite birds within the book.

I spend a lot of time reading picture books. And Birdlore has some standout features that set it above many of its companions. In terms of book design, it’s fun to see a different case wrap illustration (cover) than the dust jacket (the sleeve that comes off). The case wrap isn’t as eye-catching in terms of hooking a reader, but it’s very cool and works with the book’s subject. But what really impressed me were the bird illustrations. The birds don’t look like those in a bird guide as far as the level of detail, but they are all recognizable as distinct bird species. It would be easy to draw a generic “woodpecker” or “sparrow” for a book like this, but Holzworth’s illustrations are quite specific to each species. The woodpecker is clearly a redheaded woodpecker,* and the waxwing even has the red dot of wax on its wing. (*not all woodpeckers with red heads are the actual “redheaded woodpecker.”)

Bottom Line: Birdlore is perfect for young birders, and it would make an excellent picture book biography for a study of scientists or naturalists.

Recommended Reading at Redeemed Reader

• Resource: Bird Books for Kids (a booklist)
• Book Review: Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard–a great resource for young birders!
• Review: For slightly older readers, check out The Girl Who Drew Butterflies, about another young woman who loved to study the natural world … outside in nature!

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