Knowing the Name of a Bird by Jane Yolen

Readers might want to know where this beach is and where these turtles can be found, information not provided beyond the general statement that “They live in all of the world’s oceans.” This is not strictly true, as they are not found in the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. As the main audience of this engaging description of leatherback sea turtles is very young children, and the book has a specific focus on the first days of life, the author sticks to a few details about the physical activities undertaken by the hatchling as she makes her way from the buried nest on a beach to the nearby sea. I will lay eggs of my own.”Īlthough further explained in the backmatter (written for adults), this promise omits the fact that these turtles often travel 10,000 miles per year. The most fascinating part of this simple photo essay is the last statement made by the narrator, a baby leatherback sea turtle: “Someday I will come back to this same beach. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.8-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 54.3% of actual size.)Īn interesting thought experiment, but it doesn’t quite take off. The closing note discusses recording bird song but then shrugs away the value of those recordings. It’s thematically consistent but also maddening that the book doesn’t consistently identify the birds pictured.

(Picture the emu or the ostrich.) A concluding quote from noted physicist Richard Feynman sums it up: “You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing about the bird.” The idea is interesting, and van der Linde’s illustrations are clean, clear, and attractive, but in exploring negation the text offers little for curious, concrete-thinking young readers.

A bird’s name can’t convey its movement in space or the drama of a peacock’s outspread tail or the nature of its flight or even if it flies at all.

The individuality of a bird, such as its color, or more tactile qualities, such as “The dinosaur feet, / crooked and brown, / or the talons with / nails as hard as / an old man’s,” are not conveyed by the name we give it. What’s in a name? The characteristics of a bird cannot be conveyed by the names we give them-or by words in general.Īccording to Yolen, birds are given both scientific and popular names, such as robin, hawk, peacock, or swan, but neither name captures anything about what the bird is really like.

Knowing the Name of a Bird by Jane Yolen