How to Make a Bird

If you love a picture book that speaks to your soul and leaves thoughts and images in your head long after you close the cover, I highly recommend How to Make a Bird. * Kids' Book Review * How To Make a Bird is a stunner of a picture book. In heart-shivering, lyrical prose, Meg McKinlay details the process of creating a bird, and, in doing so, illuminates the transformative potential of the creative process * Readings * one of those special ones - thought-provoking, challenging and an absolute delight to explore * Magpies * McKinlay's tone is stately, the pace deliciously deliberate- But when you see it sitting,/ cold as a statue, you will know/ that there is more to a bird than/ these things you have given it -allowing space for readers to savor Ottley's luminous pigmented ink illustrations, which reveal extratextual details, for example about the child's bird-making materials. A beautiful rumination on creating. Starred review. * Kirkus * Delicately written and illustrated, How to Make a Bird is a divine picture book that speaks many different meanings to the reader. * Educate Empower Blog * As with all great creations, How to Make a Bird is almost too complex to comprehend yet Ottley's visually arresting illustrations work in perfect unison with a narrative that reads like a verse novel. Words grace images that are clean and uncluttered yet perfectly precise. I do not know anyone who does penumbral clouds as stunningly as Matt Ottley; I could stare at them all day, lost in their infinite beauty. This book is the creators' bird. It is simple magic. It is unexpected pleasure. It enchants and entrances as it guides us through the intriguing anatomy of birds and imagination. It is an ode to the natural world, of making and making do then moving on. It's a transformative vision of life that every child and adult must experience. * Dims Write Stuff * How to Make a Bird is an exquisitely unique book that captures both the heart and the imagination...This is a beautiful book that speaks of art and imagination and encourages all children to delight in the magic of independent tinkering and creating. * ReadPlus * Meg McKinlay's lyrical sentences give the reader space to explore the story and reflect on its imagery. Matt Ottley's expansive illustrations have a beauty, airiness and surreal dream-like quality that perfectly complement the text and make the esoteric tangible. This story will appeal to people of all ages who love to reflect, imagine, dream and create. I've read that the author took 16 years to find a home for this introspective narrative. It was worth the wait. * CBCA: Reading Time * This story shows how even the smallest idea can be transformed into a work of beauty and creativity. The illustrations by artist Matt Ottley are simply stunning. Muted in tones but steeped in detail they complement the text perfectly. One reading is not enough of this book, there is so much to be gained by poring over each page and searching for more clues to understand the flow of the story. A truly inspiring and gentle read. * ReadPlus * This story, infused with an ethereal, wondrous tone, is for creative souls everywhere, those who know what it is to imagine something and to experience the joy of bringing it to life with care-and the bittersweet feeling of letting it go and moving on. * Kirkus *