How to Make a Bird by Meg McKinlay illustrated by Matt Ottley

"To make a bird ... "

Birds are such wonderful and wondrous creatures. The act of flying seems so impossible, almost miraculous. How do birds make fight look so effortless and natural when we humans cannot jump into the sky without the assistance of huge contraptions such as aeroplanes?

Meg McKinlay explains how birds have hollow bones "so light ... you will hardly feel them." Matt Ottely shows what happens if you gather the bones and some feathers to build a bird. Meg explains you bird will need a heart "that beats faster than any human heart ... a sure, steady heart to carry it across oceans ... " Your bird will also need eyes, a beak, strong claws and one more thing:

"a song to sing."

Now your bird needs to fly so "gather it into your hands and cast it gently upon the air."

Just look at that word placement - gather, cast, gently, upon.

Setting your beautiful, newly created bird free is both a moment of sadness and yet also happiness. Looking in to the wide blue sky painted by Matt Ottley I felt both of those emotions and also an exhilaration as the bird disappears setting off to explore the world.

This book is thrilling on so many levels. I love the care Meg McKinlay has taken with each and every word. The expert craft of artist Matt Ottley shines through every page. This book has been designed beautifully. The cover is tactile, the end papers somehow manage to show the lightness of a feather and the title page looks like it came from the notebook of Leonardo da Vinci. How to Make a Bird also shows how powerful stories can be conveyed through images. We are not told anything about the little girl who is making her bird but careful readers will see there is a whole back story to be discovered from the shadowy room where she sleeps with its makeshift bed, to the precarious solitary tower where she lives.

I hope Walker Books have plans to send this book, like the little bird, out into the world. How to Make a Bird should be seen around the world as a shining example of the best picture books crafted here in Australia.

Here is the publisher blurb:

From award-winning author Meg McKinlay and celebrated artist Matt Ottley comes a moving and visually stunning picture book that celebrates the transformative power of the creative process from inception through recognition to celebration and releasing into the world. We shadow the protagonist as she contemplates the blue print of an idea, collects the things that inspire from the natural world to shape a bird. And breathes life into it before letting it fly free. It shows how small things, combined with a little imagination and a steady heart, can transform into works of magic. A must-have book for collectors of exceptional picture books. Walker Books

Here are a set of very comprehensive and extremely useful teachers notes. These show how this book could easily be read to younger children and then explored with a older group as a discussion starter for deeper meanings.