Field Guide To The North American Bird – Review

bk-fieldguide200Field Guide To The North American Bird

By Adam Blank with Lauren Blank
Illustrated By Michael H. Moore (10 Speed Press)
by Sarah Katz

 

This book is a good chuckle. The authors are brother and sister who would flip each other off in extravagant ways, to see who could flip the other off most creatively. Written in the form of a bird field guide, with excellent illustrations by Michael H. Moore, it’s a fun book to flip through, no pun intended. Each flip is rated in terms of difficulty, impact, and speciality. There are illustrations, instructions, and a little story behind each.

As you can guess, the book gets quite redundant. Your chuckles diminish to grins, and further downward, to where you’re wondering if there’s going to be anything that shocks you. That said, it’s still fun, and the cartoon illustrations keep the book afloat. Someone at the office saw this book popping out of my bag and asked, “Did you buy this?” I was definitely proud to admit that no I didn’t buy it. This was a free sample sent for review. This is a book my mom would pick up as a holiday gift for me because she wouldn’t know what else to get. This isn’t the type of book that you read cover to cover. It’s one you open to a random page, and go from there.

If this book were to sit on your coffee table, it’s guaranteed that anyone who saw it would immediately feel compelled to pick it up, flip through it, and practice a few “birds.” With chapters such as “Party Birds,” “Birds of the World,” and “Birds for the Chicks,” this is an extremely detailed and organized guide. Don’t forget to check out “Rejected Birds” to make sure you don’t flip someone off the wrong way.
(www.northamericanbird.com)