'How to Find a Bird' Proves the Perfect Pandemic Book for Kids

Who knew how much joy birds could bring? Hummingbirds flitting around my back garden were a daily highlight this summer. Oriole-spotting seemed to be the pandemic favorite for those of us who weren't baking sourdough bread. A friend in Austin can't get enough of the owl that's come to roost in her back yard.

Birds are everywhere, Jennifer Ward tells readers in the delightful How to Find a Bird (Beach Lane Books, August 2020). We just have to watch for them, listen, and stay quiet. Spectacularly illustrated by Diana Sudyka, the nonfiction picture book by this Illinois duo is possibly the perfect title to share with a child right now in our socially distanced world.  

Drawing inspiration from the outdoors and combining nature with STEM learning, Jennifer has published more than 25 nonfiction books (Mama Built a Little Nest, Mama Dug a Little Den, both from Beach Lane Books). And Chicago artist Diana is no slack: her stunning illustration style can be found in such titles as The Mysterious Benedict Society and What Miss Mitchell Saw. And visitors to the beloved bookstore Booked in Evanston, Illinois, will recognize her artwork adorning the charming door that welcomes bookbuyers both short and tall.

These wildly talented creators recently took a few minutes to talk about their book with me, and what inspired them. AuthorOf is especially excited (and grateful!) to be able to share the perspective of the author and the illustrator. For a chance to win a copy of How to Find a Bird, click here.

QUESTION: This book is so informative. How much time researching did you have to take to get down all the details? Can you talk about resources and your process?

JENNIFER WARD: Well, I’m such a bird nerd, truly. Each day of my life is immersed in birds. When I take a break from author-related work, I study bird behavior and read scientific bird publications, such as Living Bird published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I also volunteer at a wild songbird rehabilitation center in St. Louis. Each and every bird rescue is unique and presents opportunities to learn more about bird life. 

In my free time I garden for birds, photograph birds, and I go birding each day in some manner. THAT said, the text for How to Find a Bird came naturally—that’s not to say I didn’t do research for the book: Is the Ivory Billed Woodpecker truly extinct? Searches are still underway, but no success in spotting one so far. However, when I need facts checked, I often reach out to the great folks at Audubon, in addition to experts in the field of birding I’ve gotten to know over the years. Birders are like kidlit people—kind, passionate about their work, and eager to share that passion with others. As far as my process goes, I write at my kitchen table where I have a 180-degree view of old growth forest outside my windows. Needless to say, it’s remarkable I get any writing done at all because I will drop everything and head outside when I see something that piques my curiosity through those panes of glass.  

DIANA SUDYKA: The short answer is that I have been researching for this my entire life! 

The much longer answer: Since a very young age, I have been interested in natural history. I spent a lot of time outside as a kid, and was gifted my first bird field guide in second grade. I still have that Peterson guide with all on my notes scribbled in it. Many years later I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to volunteer in the Chicago Field Museum’s Bird lab, and work alongside the collection’s manager Dr. David Willard. David trained me and other volunteers to document and preserve salvaged birds (70,000 and counting) that had collided with windows of downtown Chicago buildings. My specific job was to use a form of taxidermy to preserve the bird’s shape and plumage for creating research specimens. It is something that required skills that I had developed as an artist. In my 10+ years there, I learned so much about our native species of migratory birds, and the impact urban landscapes and climate change are having on them. I had incredible access to these research collections, and would often paint from the specimens. I have held extinct species like Passenger Pigeons and Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in my hand; not something I take lightly. 

Everything that I put into the choices I made for the illustrations for How to Find a Bird can be all traced back to those 10+ years in the bird lab. It opened my eyes to the incredible diversity and beauty of the birds that come through our Chicago area, and thus why my illustrations focus on North American species. Jen’s writing was so wonderfully clear that it wasn’t difficult to come up with particular species to match her words. I developed the roughs and when they were shared with Jen, I think she only had one or two requests for added species. 

As far as overall aesthetic, I love early Richard Scarry and Feodor Rojankovsky illustrations from the Golden Book era. I wanted my work for How to Find a Bird to reflect some of that influence. I work mainly in gouache paint on paper, as those illustrators did. While most of my work is done traditionally, I also do quite a bit of digital touch up in the final stages. How to Find a Bird is probably my most digital work to date. 

Q: We all have a favorite, spirit-animal bird. Which one is yours?

JW: Although I had a very cool, spiritual encounter with a Pueo once (Hawaiian Short-eared Owl), the hummingbird is my favorite spirit-animal bird as it's the one bird species that surfaces in my dreams a lot.

DS: I have many favorites, and oddly several are NOT in the book, whoops!

Sandhill Cranes
Brown Creepers
Chimney Swifts
Common Nighthawks

AuthorOf enjoying her favorite door,
at Booked in Evanston and painted by Diana

Q: How do you want kids to experience the book?

JW: I love to imagine young readers poring over each and every detail of Diana's  stunning art—again and again and again—maybe noticing a detail not noticed before or relishing a favorite illustration or bird species; it’s so great how Diana labeled each bird species she illustrated in the book! I hope kids are familiar with some of them and inspired to learn more about others. I like to imagine the kids imagining themselves as the children in the book having adventures with birds. 

I hope the experience with this book will also encourage readers to engage mindfully and playfully with their senses when out in nature, noticing and hearing things new to them, especially related to birds. It’s a big, wide bird-world out there (close to 10,000 bird species on the planet), and birding can be both a classroom and a playground for kids, rich with opportunities to wonder, discover, hypothesize and practice awareness, empathy and stewardship. 

DS: I want kids to come away from the book understanding that birds are everywhere, and even the most undervalued, common species have much to offer. It’s why my first illustration spread in the book is of an urban setting showcasing two species of birds so many dislike: pigeons and House sparrows. Observing these most common of birds can lead to other questions and observations by kids: Why are there so many house sparrows and pigeons, or European starlings? What is the difference between a native species and something that was introduced? If they were introduced, who brought them here? Why? What is beautiful about them? Etc. 

Also, I want kids to know that you don’t have to live in a rural area or a forest to see and appreciate birds. You don’t have to travel thousands of miles away to see an extraordinary species of bird, and that there is incredible diversity right here in our cities and backyards. For example, Chicago is along a major migratory flyway: Lake Michigan. We get thousands of birds migrating through our area every fall and spring. I want kids to learn that nature is not other, or far over there. It is home to us and so many other species. So, let’s start at home, connecting to the nature that is here that we may grow to value and protect it. 

Meg Fleming and Diana Sudyka's Collaboration on 'Sometimes Rain'

Sometimes you come across a book that hits you just exactly, precisely, square-on right. Maybe it's a particular word choice that thrills you. Maybe it's an image that delights. When I picked up Sometimes Rain (October 2018, Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster), written by Meg Fleming and illustrated by Diana Sudyka, what struck me was the way the language and illustration so perfectly combine to complement each other and make for a powerful, evocative reading experience.

A celebration of the four seasons, Sometimes Rain takes young readers through the natural world's changing rhythms: snowfall, storms, sunny days, and turning leaves. There are endless launching points for discussion — focusing attention on what's happening outdoors in the natural world as well as indoors with our clothing choices, explorations of the calendar, celebrating holidays, how we deal with change, and how we interact with nature.

Diana Sudyka

The bio for Meg (I Heart You; Ready, Set, Build!) says she's a voice teacher, and her obvious love of language comes through with each word she's selected. And Diana's distinctive style (she's done the covers for Trenton Lee Stewart's Secret Keepers and The Mysterious Benedict Society series, Tricia Springstubb's Every Single Second, Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic) makes you linger over every page.

This book will appeal to nature enthusiasts, the animal obsessed, STEM fans, the umbrella-and-boots crowd, poetry lovers — you name it. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews calls it a "celebration of the impermanence and unpredictability of seasons" and "a delight for pluviophiles and heliophiles alike." Add word-lovers to the list too.

I asked both author and illustrator to stop by for a chat, and they were kind enough to collaborate on this interview. I'm so grateful to Meg and Diana for taking time out of busy schedules to share a bit about the making of Sometimes Rain. And as an aside: I'm so happy to cheer on authors from my former hometown of San Francisco (Meg) and my current hometown of Chicago (fist-bumps to Diana).

Question: What struck me about Sometimes Rain and made it seem like a real standout from the pack is the perfect combination of lyrical language and evocative illustration. Each word, each image seem so well thought out. What's your creative process like? Does it come to you fully formed? Or do you labor over months and months for just the right detail?

 Meg Fleming: Thank you! Well, my creative process is a little different for every project. I’d say that most of my ideas begin with a whisper— one or two words maybe. Next, I get a strong emotional pull. Finally, whether in rhyme or prose, there’s some kind of pulse where I actually feel a beat, or a rhythm. While the whisper is like a subtle invitation or reminder, the emotion is harder to ignore. Emotion is persistent. It winds the strings of an idea until it’s so taught, I need a pen like a dog needs a bone. And once the pulse shows up— I can’t contain myself.

After that, it’s a pretty spastic and messy process. But it’s more fun than anything I know. I roll out a wasteful amount of butcher block paper and grab whatever writing utensil I can get my hands on and I start spewing stanzas until I’ve exhausted all possibilities. And then I piece the puzzle together—circling my favorite images and turns-of-phrase, and reordering words in exchange for a more satisfying rhyme or stronger emotion. And yes, I take words to the woodshed like you wouldn’t believe. I don’t like to waste them. I’m a firm believer in economy of words. So… you’re probably thinking… you sure said "sometimes" a lot.

I did. Sometimes was my whisper. It was my invitation. It’s the part that made me wonder more. And so, I let myself use it. A lot.

Diana Sudyka: Thank you! Meg’s words so beautifully evoke the essence of each season, and when I read the manuscript it made me think of my time as a child spent playing outdoors in every season here in the Midwest. Settling on what to specifically depict and visual motifs, though, was initially kind of messy. I was given complete creative freedom, and initially that’s wonderful, but when you have a more open-ended manuscript (i.e. something that doesn’t have a clear narrative, or based on a historical figure) it can become daunting. So…sometimes ideas do come to me more fully formed, but this was more a case of start sketching without a clear direction, and the themes will eventually take shape.

There were just so many directions I could have taken! I was undecided if my illustrations should be a series of vignettes, or if there would be definite characters and narrative that we follow through the seasons. I eventually settled on four children as characters we follow playing through the seasons, then the images grew organically from there. The swirling line motif that you see throughout the book grew from being able to see the vapor from one’s breath when it gets cold, but me and Beach Lane liked it so much, we decided to make it recurring. I submitted some early roughs that ultimately we didn’t feel like were hitting the right mark aesthetically, so that was a little setback. But in hindsight, I am glad that we started over. I learned so much in making these illustrations.

Q: Typically, authors and illustrators aren't in much communication as the book goes through the publishing pipeline. Did you offer suggestions or comments to each other? Did you communicate at all?

Meg: I don’t think Diana and I had direct contact with each other until the whole creative process was complete, did we? I mean… we met in the usual way— I was crazy about Diana’s work and I stalked her Instagram account like any good writer should!

But there were a few times when Andrea Welch and Lauren Rille, our Editor and Art Director over at Beach Lane, reached out to me for clarification. Turns out, when you say "sometimes" a lot, there’s a vast amount of room for interpretation! Anyway. Andrea and Lauren asked me to describe what a few of those stanzas meant to me with the hope that it might inspire an image or idea for the story. I still can’t get over Diana’s beautiful interpretation of this story. I've said it before, and I'll say it a million times more: her work is magic!

Diana: Yes, that is typical. Having a go-between in the form of an art director in the initial stages of a project like this can be helpful in streamlining art direction and feedback, though. For Sometimes Rain I wasn’t directly in contact with Meg until she reached out after, I think, Beach Lane had shown her the second round of revisions I had made? Prior to this, there were a couple spreads I was really stuck on coming up with the right image, and Beach Lane reached out to Meg for some ideas. It was very helpful to have that input from Meg. Overall, it’s been so great to have contact with Meg. She has been so wonderfully supportive of what I created for Sometimes Rain. I often never hear what an author thinks of the work I did for their manuscript.

Q: I see this book as having staying power — teaching kids to recognize the seasons, what's happening in nature, how we interact with the natural world throughout the year, as well as offering a soothing, cozy reading experience. I wanted a cup of hot cocoa and a warm blanket when I read this! How do you hope kids and adults experience your book?

Meg: I am so glad to hear that this book got you all cozy and cuppa cocoa-y!

I really hope that Sometimes Rain inspires both children and adults to go outside and play. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, but it offers brilliant insight on how our connection to the outside world is slipping and what kind of impact that slip-up has on our relationships with each other and the environment. Diana’s illustrations in this book are nothing short of a magnificent romp through the seasons and I’m hoping it will give kids (and parents) a chance to unplug and listen, smell and feel the outside world in an everyday way.

Diana: That’s exactly what I wanted my illustrations to inspire: to recognize the changing seasons, to observe those changes throughout the year, and feel that there is beauty and opportunity to play in every season. That we are part of this cycle too. I often think of the book Last Child in the Woods and the massive shift we have seen in the way children play and a disconnection to nature. Adults too. How can we address climate change and be good stewards of the earth if we don’t support this critical, early bond children have with the natural world?

Side note from Kate: I had Last Child in the Woods on my mind when I wrote my Cupcake Cousins series — I was very interested in portraying kids interacting with nature during all seasons. Clearly there's something going on here!

Q: Reading Sometime Rain, I was reminded of a few other delightful books that have us in boots and out exploring the world. Specifically Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day. Do you see other classic or contemporary books that Sometimes Rain fits on the shelf with? Or books that inspired you as you wrote/illustrated?

Meg: I adore The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, and it makes me so happy to hear that Sometimes Rain provided an opportunity to pause and think on life in that way… dragging a slow stick through the snow. 

I'm happy to see Sometimes Rain on any child's bookshelf! I've heard a few reviewers note that they would set it on the shelf with Red Sings From the Treetops by Joyce Sidman as well as All The World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee.

Diana: Oh, I love Ezra Jack Keats. The Snowy Day is so elegant and brilliant. When I was creating my illustrations for Sometimes Rain, the book that was in the back of my mind most. So was I Am a Bunny by Ole Rison and illustrated by Richard Scarry. I love this early era of Richard Scarry’s work. The detail he gave to the flora and fauna in Bunny’s world are field-guide worthy, and of course each season is beautifully represented. There is a painting of Bunny surrounded by butterflies, and in Sometimes Rain my illustration of the dog chasing butterflies was sort of my homage to that scene by Scarry.

Q: You're both so talented, it's exciting to think of what else we'll see coming from you. What's in the works?

Meg: I do have a few projects in the pipeline — one I can talk about, one I can’t talk about, and others that that are still seedlings. I am thrilled about my next book that will hit the shelves in Spring 2020. It’s called Here Comes Ocean, illustrated by Paola Zakimi and published by Beach Lane Books, and it follows a child who discovers that along with every rolling wave comes a new ocean creature and with that another possibility for adventure. And I have another book after that… but it’s still top secret!

Diana: It was such a great experience working with such a talented writer as Meg. In May 2019 Abrams will be releasing When Sue Found Sue about paleontologist and explorer Sue Hendrickson who found the most complete T-rex skeleton. It’s written by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by me. And then I illustrated What Miss Mitchell Saw by Hayley Barrette about astronomer Maria Mitchell. It should be out in Fall of 2019 also with Beach Lane. Beyond this I am really hoping to publish my own author/illustrator project.