Woodpecker Wham!

by April Pulley Sayre, Steve Jenkins (Illustrator)

Overview

Swoop and land.
Hitch and hop.
Shred a tree stump.
Chop, chip, chop!

Enter woodpecker world and get a bird's eye view of everyday life: hiding from hawks, feeding hungry chicks, and drilling holes to build homes. Woodpeckers are nature's home builders, creating holes that many other animals live in when the woopeckers move on.

A variety of woodpecker species fly through these pages-perhaps some that live near you!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627796309
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	05/12/2015
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	127 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

April Pulley Sayre is the award-winning author of more than fifty books for young readers, including Eat Like a Bearand Vulture View. Each year she visits schools nationwide to share her love of nonfiction writing and science.

Steve Jenkins has illustrated many books, including Eat Like a Bear and Vulture View by April Pulley Sayre. He was awarded a Caldecott Honor for What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?, which he created with his wife, Robin Page. They live in Boulder, Colorado, with their three children.

April Pulley Sayre loves to write about the natural world. She is the award-winning author of more than fifty books for young readers, including Army Ant Parade and Honk, Honk, Goose! Each year she visits schools nationwide to share her love of nonfiction writing and science.
STEVE JENKINS has written and illustrated many picture books, including Actual Size and the Caldecott Honor Book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

05/18/2015
Using a brisk, upbeat cadence, the team behind Eat Like a Bear and Vulture View chronicles the lives of several species of woodpecker as they communicate, collect food, chisel bark, and more. “Fan those feathers./ Shower clean./ Sunbathe dry./ Then oil and preen!” writes Sayre as two yellow birds spread their wings under blue skies of rain and sun. Jenkins’s torn-paper collages combine downy textures and boldly contrasting patterns, creating an almost three-dimensional effect. Northern flickers have plumage suggestive of leopard print, while other specimens are mottled in black and white. Stylish feathers aside, Sayre concludes with a woodpecker doing what woodpeckers do best: “Bill to bark. Build!/ Slam, slam, slam!/ Chip and chop./ Woodpecker wham!” Substantial appendices provide a wealth of woodpecker information for birders in training. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

“With bouncy verse and colorful illustrations, an experienced picture-book team introduces a familiar bird . . . Attractive and surprising informative, this should join the duo's Eat Like a Bear on every preschool and primary nature shelf.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Lovely and exciting, this title is a great hook for young researchers, as well as fledgling ornithologists.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“This strikes the right note for budding bird-watchers.” —Booklist

“Sayre introduces the distinctively noisy woodpecker and the rhythmic cadences that fill [a woodpecker's] industrious life through a rhyming, sound word-filled text. . . . Jenkins's cut- and torn-paper collage illustrations provide action-filled perspectives on the birds swooping, pecking, fanning, and preening, with the intricacies of each species' feathers and markings carefully featured.” —The Horn Book

“Kids who think that eating like a bear means roaring around and nomming everything in sight are in for a surprise.” —BCCB, starred review on Eat Like a Bear

“Equal parts poetic and enlightening.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review on Eat Like a Bear

“Inquisitive, informed and lyrical.” —Kirkus, starred review on Eat Like a Bear

“Rarely has a book about these scavengers gotten such a gorgeous treatment.” —Booklist, starred review on Vulture View

From the Publisher

The outstanding full color illustrations by Jenkins, done with torn and cut paper, are the heart of this nonfiction picture book. One almost expects the birds to fly off the pages, as they seem so alive. In verse, the actions and lives of six varieties of woodpeckers are explained with language that begs to be read aloud. Descriptions of the birds making holes for nests, feeding their chicks, and hiding from their hawk enemies are right on point. Six pages of detailed information add to the value for elementary school aged youngsters, whether used individually for reports or by teachers doing units about birds. Websites and a brief bibliography are also included. Woodpecker Wham! perfectly demonstrates how picture books can extend their benefit beyond young children to older youth. Purchase is strongly recommended. Reviewer: Sylvia Firth; Ages 4 to 8.

Children's Literature - Sylvia Firth

★ 03/01/2015
PreS-Gr 3—A northern flicker, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, and other woodpeckers of the eastern deciduous forests "chip," "chop," and "wham" their way through the seasons through crisp verses and paper collages in this informational picture book. There are quiet moments as well: woodpeckers "pluck and feed" at the cherry tree while cherries dangle against an azure sky. Jenkins's illustrations are top-notch, beautifully depicting the different subspecies of woodpeckers, such as the flicker's subtle grays and golds, which contrast with its neck rings, and spotted chest. With metronomic precision, Sayre's verses describe the woodpecker's activity: "Hawk's a-hunting./Stop. Drop. Hide./Quiet/on the other side," and along with the illustrations, mostly spreads, make for engaging read-alouds. The end pages, supported by information from Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology and other biologists, offer more information that will be key for students engaged in Common Core activities, paired with small images, which name the featured woodpeckers. Readers learn how these birds forage, build shelter and nests, avoid predators, and instruct their young, among other topics. VERDICT Lovely and exciting, this title is a great hook for young researchers, as well as fledgling ornithologists.—Teresa Pfeifer, The Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA

School Library Journal

2015-02-03
With bouncy verse and colorful illustrations, an experienced picture-book team introduces a familiar bird.Focusing on six woodpecker species common in eastern deciduous forests—downy, red-bellied, red-headed and pileated woodpeckers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers and northern flickers—Sayre describes typical behaviors: shredding, carving, drilling, messaging, feeding, cleaning, courting, hiding, nesting, nurturing and storing food. She even mentions their useful seed-enriched droppings. Each page or spread includes a well-rhymed and rhythmic quatrain set on an illustration showing the action described. Repetitive onomatopoeic sounds such as "CHOP, CHIP, CHOP!" and "BONK-BONK-BONK" combine with plentiful alliteration to make the simple verses come alive. Each species is recognizable in Jenkins' cut-and-torn-paper collages by its head markings (but not so clearly from the striped and spotted bodies). The birds are shown in their usual habitat over four seasons, sometimes up close and sometimes from a middle distance. A particularly appealing image shows a flicker gorging on cherries, its head and upper body stained with the juice. The pictured birds are identified in thumbnail illustrations included in the extensive backmatter for older readers and adults: six pages of description of the woodpecker world which amplify the read-aloud text. Attractive and surprisingly informative, this should join the duo's Eat Like a Bear (2013) on every preschool and primary nature shelf. (Informational picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews