Susie’s Book Nook - Children’s Book Reviewed: “Birdlore - The Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey” by Jess Keating Illustrated by Devon Holzwarth
For eight years I designed and held day camps at ECA for elementary aged children during their school breaks throughout the year. I would research and find great books from our local libraries to enrich the children’s camp experience. “Birdlore - The Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey” by Jess Keating Illustrated by Devon Holzwarth would have been a wonderful resource to accompany our activities. Published in 2025, it can now be a wonderful story and resource to introduce your children to the iridescent and colorful world of bird-watching.
Florence Merriam Bailey is an excellent example of a young person who has a love for adventure and nature. The author and illustrator partner well to give us a picture of a curious child exploring a very colorful world both day and night. We learn how Florence studies nature around her recognizing it as “home” for those that hop, crawl, swim, and fly. Her favorites are those that fly, the birds. We learn how Florence begins her own personal study of birds.
Florence was a trailblazer at a time when girls were not encouraged to be scientists.
Thankfully her brother, Hart, was happy to have Florence tag along as he gathered his specimens to preserve, catalog, and make notes for displaying birds. Scientists were learning a great deal about birds by examining their bodies, feathers, and eggs. Animals were preserved for display. Florence didn’t want to examine dead birds in a collection. She wanted to study and enjoy birds in their natural habitat.
Through this book we can follow how Florence begins her detailed studies of birds and then how she shares her interest and learnings with others, first as a young person and into adulthood. Her story of maturing in her own study of birds as well as maturing in how she shared her learnings with others is fascinating and inspiring. Her steps of “caring for creation and its wildlife” teach us how one young person can, over time, develop ideas and passions into something much bigger and reach wider audiences to better community and our world. Florence published in 1889, Birds Through an Opera Glass which is known as the first field guide of American birds.
The colorful illustrations are vibrant and exciting just as Florence finds her birds, vibrant and exciting. What fun for the readers to try to go on a treasure hunt to find all 35 birds that are named and illustrated within the pages of this amazing true-life story. Find out what Kingfishers looked like when they adorned women’s hats and what Florence did to begin an effort to protect her birds.
If you have been following this Book Nook you probably have guessed I love stories about children who show interests and passions that they carry through their lives into adulthood making a difference in our world. Birdlore, the Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey, is one such book that can inspire some of our youth of today and encourage them to follow their own interests and passions to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others. It certainly has the possibility of inspiring some children today to begin a lifelong interest in bird-watching.