Clever Crow

On the front cover, a glossy-feathered crow is playfully exploring ink. It’s an eye-catching opener for a book that wants its audience to think differently about this familiar yet often misunderstood bird. But who is watching, and who is being observed? As readers quickly discover, crows are clever, crafty problem-solvers with long memories, able to wield tools and work in groups. In fact, they’re really quite like …. people!

Chris Butterworth’s engaging text takes a child-friendly approach to topics from food and flying to nesting, playing and remembering, and reads well aloud. Three font sizes encourage younger readers to focus on key messages while enabling those who wish to delve further to discover more. There’s an effective call to action on the final spread, where readers are encouraged to record crow sightings and pay close attention to their behaviour, and the basic index comes with a friendly note for novice researchers, which is a thoughtful touch.

Olivia Lomenech Gill respects her young audience with illustrations that do the opposite of ‘talking down’, and her striking artwork is beautifully observed. Painted and found papers are used as backdrops or collaged into mixed media scenes where they provide texture and evoke a vintage atmosphere, and sketched wing outlines are visible beyond some of the birds in flight, suggesting movement and the immediacy of a sketchbook. The book’s subdued palette is notable. When the American Crow goes head to head with its dapper cousin, the Eurasian Jay, the crow’s black feathers really pop against a bright background, and the greens and blues of the eggs on the beautiful endpapers sing out. But shades of grey and brown and mossy green predominate elsewhere. It’s an unusual palette in a book for this age group, and won’t go unremarked.

Lomenech Gill started her career as a fine artist, and although her artwork for Clever Crow does illustrate the text, there’s a sense in which it stands alone, as well. Occasionally, it also seems to be inviting questions that don’t quite add up. Tangential discussion can be rich and wonderful, and text and image don’t have to say the same thing. But some of the non-verbal prompts in Clever Crow seem to be slightly at odds with the words.

Children deserve to encounter a wide range of visual styles, and the even youngest of readers will respond to this book with interest and insight when supported by adults who encourage observation and discussion. Families who aren’t as confident in this respect could find the artwork challenging, though, and the book’s biggest fans may be older than the text suggests.