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Aska's Birds
Spectacular artwork highlights an unusual look at the world of birds, from penguin waiters to flamingoes painting sunsets, as short poems intertwine with the illustrations to create a children's guessing game about birds.
- GenresChildrens
32 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1992
4 people want to read
About the author
David Day
286 books266 followersDavid Day (b. 14 October 1947 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a Canadian author of over forty books: poetry, natural history, ecology, mythology, fantasy, and children's literature. Internationally he is most notably known for his literary criticism on J. R. R. Tolkien and his works.
After finishing high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating from the University of Victoria. Subsequently he has travelled widely, most frequently to Greece and Britain.
Day has published six books of poems for adults and ten illustrated children's books of fiction and poetry. His non-fiction books on natural history include The Doomsday Book of Animals, The Whale War, Eco Wars: a Layman Guide to the Environmental Movement, Noah's Choice and most recently Nevermore: A Book of Hours - Meditations on Extinction (2012).
His Doomsday Book was a Time Magazine Book of the Year and became the basis for the 100 part animated-short TV series "Lost Animals of the 20th Century".
David Days best-selling books on the life and works of JRR Tolkien include: A Tolkien Bestiary, Tolkien: the Illustrated Encyclopedia, Tolkien's Ring, The World of Tolkien and The Hobbit Companion.
Day's Tolkien's Ring was illustrated by academy award-winning artist Alan Lee, as was Castles, The Animals Within, Gothic and Quest For King Arthur.
After finishing high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating from the University of Victoria. Subsequently he has travelled widely, most frequently to Greece and Britain.
Day has published six books of poems for adults and ten illustrated children's books of fiction and poetry. His non-fiction books on natural history include The Doomsday Book of Animals, The Whale War, Eco Wars: a Layman Guide to the Environmental Movement, Noah's Choice and most recently Nevermore: A Book of Hours - Meditations on Extinction (2012).
His Doomsday Book was a Time Magazine Book of the Year and became the basis for the 100 part animated-short TV series "Lost Animals of the 20th Century".
David Days best-selling books on the life and works of JRR Tolkien include: A Tolkien Bestiary, Tolkien: the Illustrated Encyclopedia, Tolkien's Ring, The World of Tolkien and The Hobbit Companion.
Day's Tolkien's Ring was illustrated by academy award-winning artist Alan Lee, as was Castles, The Animals Within, Gothic and Quest For King Arthur.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 24, 2010
Amazing artwork. The premise of the book is to match birds with the roles they would play if they were human. The first half of the book achieves this extremely well and showcases Day's creativity. The poems seemed forced and stilted as the book neared the end.
December 3, 2009
Odd. Definitely not western associations for the birds. The eagle is a bogeyman and is shown attacking a goose and her chicks.
February 8, 2021
I took this home free from the bookshop I volunteer at because it was a discard. I skimmed through it and liked some of the illustrations, so I decided to give it a try.
Poems I liked:
‘The parrot becomes a feathered rainbow in flight.’
Penguins: ‘An immaculate army of tuxedos in nature’s icebox. They are the unruffled headwaiters of the ice floes, the chief butlers of the Antarctic.’
‘Flamingos are exotic twilight artists
Who create impossible sunsets.
Each evening, with long feathered wingstrokes
They paint pink the pale roof of the sky.’
‘A frosting of snowy egrets settles in the treetops.
They are forest rangers standing on guard.’
‘What is the sound of starlight?
It’s the whisper of white feathers,
A lullaby from the heavens.
The dove is a storyteller whose gentle tales bring peace
To lonely nestlings in the forest of night.’
‘Who knows best the changes of the moon?
Who haunts the long dark of the arctic night?
Who is the guardian of the forest laden with snow?
Who? Who? Who?
It’s the moon-eyed snowy owl,
The night watchman of the wilderness.’
I loved the mystery and darkness of the crows; they had the most personality out of all the birds in the book.
‘Who knows the dark business of crows?
They are detectives in a world of twilight and shadow.
If only we understood the gossip of crows,
We might learn where stolen jewels are hidden.’
-Even though the drawing made them look more like vultures than crows. The bare tree was like those you see in desert-like places, with vultures sitting on them.
The eagle was the most fearsome bird. I liked when it said ‘His eyes are burned-out stars.’
‘Their wings as white as the crests of the waves,
Gulls flutter and soar, as they patrol the sea.
Search and rescue teams of the wild and windy shore.’
I liked the last line ‘This has been a flight of fancy. Our imaginations, like birds, were given wings.’
I don’t think the vocabulary was simple enough for kids. They probably wouldn’t know words like ‘gaudy,’ ‘harlequin’ or ‘immaculate.’
As I read this, I never understood what the guessing game was. It’s just a book of poems that you’re reading through, and there was no place to guess. I didn’t know what/when/where we’re supposed to guess, unless you’re supposed to read the heading with the type of bird the poem is about, and then take a minute to guess what it’s job might be? I wouldn’t get very far doing that…
I don’t know, I just don’t think a guessing game worked with poems.
There’s a poem I almost missed on the title page, about pelicans. It’s crammed under the copyright info on the book, so you almost don’t notice it, and there’s no illustrations to go with it. It should have been given its own page.
The illustrations were ok; some were better than others.
On some pages it had hidden images, or illusions. On the page about ducks, the clouds are in the shape of ducks. On the penguin page, there’s a shape of a penguin is seen and the head is on the ice at the top of the page. The ostrich was the best page for illusions, with ballerinas dancing among them, their arms outstretched to look like beaks. It’s also hard to tell their legs apart. On the flamingo page, one of the flamingos blends in with the sun.
My favorite pages were the snowy egrets, who’s plumed tails were mimicked with fireworks above them. It was a pretty page. I also really liked the page of the dove. It looked like a constellation, with the dove shape formed by stars in the sky. The page was a night scene made up of blues and greens, with the dove looking down on a forest top with a nest in it. The page with the snowy owls was nice, also, and is the one used on the cover. The owls look like snow-covered pines, and their eyes resemble the moon. The parrot showed a rainbow being left by its wings. I loved the colors on the peacock page; blues, greens, and white. It took me rereading the poem to understand that the peacock is supposed to look like a fountain at the bottom; before I wondered where it’s body and legs were. The gulls shows a white-capped ocean scene, with the white gulls blending in with the waves. On the last page there’s ocean waves in the shape of a gull, with legs and a beak. I thought that was a cool way to tie it in and decorate the last page.
The others were just ok. The one with the swans was actually creepy. At least reading the poem I understand it, because before I looked at the page and just thought it was weird. But in the poem it says swans are the nursemaids, nature’s nursery, and guardians who take in lost babes beneath sheltering wings. The babies themselves just look creepy, with weird, smushed faces.
I liked some lines in some of the poems, and some I even liked the entire poem. Others didn’t work for me. I’m glad I finally read this so I know what’s it like.
Poems I liked:
‘The parrot becomes a feathered rainbow in flight.’
Penguins: ‘An immaculate army of tuxedos in nature’s icebox. They are the unruffled headwaiters of the ice floes, the chief butlers of the Antarctic.’
‘Flamingos are exotic twilight artists
Who create impossible sunsets.
Each evening, with long feathered wingstrokes
They paint pink the pale roof of the sky.’
‘A frosting of snowy egrets settles in the treetops.
They are forest rangers standing on guard.’
‘What is the sound of starlight?
It’s the whisper of white feathers,
A lullaby from the heavens.
The dove is a storyteller whose gentle tales bring peace
To lonely nestlings in the forest of night.’
‘Who knows best the changes of the moon?
Who haunts the long dark of the arctic night?
Who is the guardian of the forest laden with snow?
Who? Who? Who?
It’s the moon-eyed snowy owl,
The night watchman of the wilderness.’
I loved the mystery and darkness of the crows; they had the most personality out of all the birds in the book.
‘Who knows the dark business of crows?
They are detectives in a world of twilight and shadow.
If only we understood the gossip of crows,
We might learn where stolen jewels are hidden.’
-Even though the drawing made them look more like vultures than crows. The bare tree was like those you see in desert-like places, with vultures sitting on them.
The eagle was the most fearsome bird. I liked when it said ‘His eyes are burned-out stars.’
‘Their wings as white as the crests of the waves,
Gulls flutter and soar, as they patrol the sea.
Search and rescue teams of the wild and windy shore.’
I liked the last line ‘This has been a flight of fancy. Our imaginations, like birds, were given wings.’
I don’t think the vocabulary was simple enough for kids. They probably wouldn’t know words like ‘gaudy,’ ‘harlequin’ or ‘immaculate.’
As I read this, I never understood what the guessing game was. It’s just a book of poems that you’re reading through, and there was no place to guess. I didn’t know what/when/where we’re supposed to guess, unless you’re supposed to read the heading with the type of bird the poem is about, and then take a minute to guess what it’s job might be? I wouldn’t get very far doing that…
I don’t know, I just don’t think a guessing game worked with poems.
There’s a poem I almost missed on the title page, about pelicans. It’s crammed under the copyright info on the book, so you almost don’t notice it, and there’s no illustrations to go with it. It should have been given its own page.
The illustrations were ok; some were better than others.
On some pages it had hidden images, or illusions. On the page about ducks, the clouds are in the shape of ducks. On the penguin page, there’s a shape of a penguin is seen and the head is on the ice at the top of the page. The ostrich was the best page for illusions, with ballerinas dancing among them, their arms outstretched to look like beaks. It’s also hard to tell their legs apart. On the flamingo page, one of the flamingos blends in with the sun.
My favorite pages were the snowy egrets, who’s plumed tails were mimicked with fireworks above them. It was a pretty page. I also really liked the page of the dove. It looked like a constellation, with the dove shape formed by stars in the sky. The page was a night scene made up of blues and greens, with the dove looking down on a forest top with a nest in it. The page with the snowy owls was nice, also, and is the one used on the cover. The owls look like snow-covered pines, and their eyes resemble the moon. The parrot showed a rainbow being left by its wings. I loved the colors on the peacock page; blues, greens, and white. It took me rereading the poem to understand that the peacock is supposed to look like a fountain at the bottom; before I wondered where it’s body and legs were. The gulls shows a white-capped ocean scene, with the white gulls blending in with the waves. On the last page there’s ocean waves in the shape of a gull, with legs and a beak. I thought that was a cool way to tie it in and decorate the last page.
The others were just ok. The one with the swans was actually creepy. At least reading the poem I understand it, because before I looked at the page and just thought it was weird. But in the poem it says swans are the nursemaids, nature’s nursery, and guardians who take in lost babes beneath sheltering wings. The babies themselves just look creepy, with weird, smushed faces.
I liked some lines in some of the poems, and some I even liked the entire poem. Others didn’t work for me. I’m glad I finally read this so I know what’s it like.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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September 9, 2009J598.02Day
April 3, 2010
Beautiful, if haunting, illustrations. Concise poems that capture the essence of each bird.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews