Non-Fiction Pick: Fascinating and Factual Must-Read: A World Without Birds

 

A World Without Birds: How To Save Our Planet, One Bird at a Time 

by Nick Lund

Illustrations by Asia Orlando

Workman Kids

Workman Publishing

Hachette Book Group, Inc. 

2026 

176 pages 

ISBN: 9781523518029

THE guide to helping birds bounce back and thrive. For hundreds, if not thousands of years, humans have built, overbuilt, decimated forests and wetlands to build homes and cities and birds have paid the price. Humans' reliance on electricity at night lights up the skies and sometimes confuses birds. Aircraft fill the skies both day and night, Birds' migration patterns have changed due to humans invading their spaces. This is all terrible news, but the more we know about birds and their behaviors and needs, the more we can help them. 

In concise easy-to-understand language and using different fonts for important points and boxes for interesting facts, readers glean paramount data that will change their behavior (hopefully) of exploiting  land to continue to pave the planet and ruin open spaces. 

Science now knows five major areas that have changed nature: Humans changing the physical landscape with building and farming, killing plants and animals through fishing, hunting and logging, climate change and chemicals in the atmosphere, pollution in water and air and adding alien organisms into environments they do not belong in where said new species disrupt flora and fauna already there. 

Your would think knowing this, humans would have fixed things long ago, but we can't lose hope. For the last century (or so) humans have been working to undo the damage we did. Whether it's saving one species of bird or blocking the destruction of forests, there are now movements to stop the damamge, and readers will want to do their part after reading this timely book. 

Divided into sections, you can choose to read the section that interests you most first: from tropical forests to the Poles to the deserts or islands, birds live everywhere. The author includes pages guiding readers to become involved: why not join a group, work with birds or simple things anyone can do: turn out your lights--which interfere with migration patterns. Plant native plants that will attract insects, giving birds food. Use less plastic which confuses seabirds into thinking floating plastic is something to eat. If we each do the little things and keep in mind the big picture, birds have a fighting chance. 

I loved this book, Although I'm not a bird expert nor scientist, this book gave me the knowledge to get angry and change how I think about birds and nature. It is up to every. Single. One. Of. Us. It is a call to action, 

A must-have, must-read for any science minded learner, any non-fiction aficionado, and any caring human. Grades 3 and up. 

ISBN: 9781523518029